Mint to Be
by orisitjustfantasy
Summary: Jackson Avery and April Kepner are surgeons and single parents living similar but separate lives. What happens when their lives finally intersect? AU. Please give this a try!
1. Parent Trap

**Thank you everyone for deciding to give this story a try! It's slightly AU… There really isn't much to say about it until you give it a try.**

**Also, Snowstorm will be updated later today!**

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"Dad, what's for breakfast?" the fifteen year old boy

asked his dad, offering more attention towards his dribbling his basketball than his father. He had a game coming up on Friday and if he wanted to make the varsity basketball team next year he was going to have to tear it up at the big game against Tacoma later in the week.

"I don't know, Isaac. You're a big kid, find something. Cereal, scrambled eggs, a bagel…" Jackson listed, finishing the last story in the sports section of The Seattle Times.

"I had a bagel yesterday and I don't feel like cereal. Can I have some money to get something at school?" He asked his dad, already holding his hand out for the cash. Jackson eyed him curiously and pulled a crisp ten dollar bill out of his wallet.

"They can't possibly have anything better there than what we have here," Jackson argued even though he already gave in and handed him a ten.

"What are we doing for your birthday tonight or do you have to work?" Isaac knew his dad would choose to work instead of celebrate. His father had been known to bury himself in his work at the hospital, especially when he was avoiding things like getting older in this case. Or spending his birthday pretty much alone.

"How about we hit up the SuperSonics game tonight?" Jackson offered, hoping to actually get in some quality father-son time with his kid. Lately it felt like he was losing Isaac to those teenage years – he was there once, resenting his family and struggling through those never ending awkward stages.

"Can I bring Summer?" Isaac asked his father. Jackson knew it was an unintentional ultimatum. If he said no then Isaac wouldn't want to go, but if he said yes then it would be so much for the father-son time they needed.

"Really man? You can't even go to a basketball game with your old man without trying to bring the girlfriend? Am I that awful to hang out with alone once in a while?" Jackson teased. When he really thought about it he knew it wasn't him, his son was just hung up on this girl Summer and had been all year. The look on his kids' face showed no humor so he changed his answer, "Yeah, sure. Bring her, it'll be fun." He sighed. In one of those self-pitying moments he tried not to have he thought about what a great birthday it was going to be – spending the evening with his son and brand new girlfriend.

"Not even a thank you? Really Isaac?" Jackson asked while a bit peeved, Isaac was engrossed in his cell phone once again. He was about to throw that damn thing away. "Earth to Isaac."

"Hey, put it down. Who are you texting?" Jackson asked, waving his hands in front of Isaac's face. He was going to give him five more seconds to put it down before he smashed it.

"Sorry Dad. I was just telling Summer that we could pick her up at six. Is that okay?" Isaac asked, Jackson noticed the shift in his son's mood. He was noticeably happier when he was talking to or about Summer. At least they were talking a little bit.

"That's fine. Do you know where she lives?" Jackson asked his son curiously. To his knowledge Isaac hadn't been to Summer's house to hang out or anything yet.

"Dad, you drove me over there for her pool party over the summer. She lives just around the corner from school, remember?" Isaac reminded him, clearly annoyed at his father's questions. Jackson didn't remember but it wasn't worth the argument

"Oh, that's right. Are you ready to go? I'd like to get an early start today… so let's go," Jackson stood up from his chair at the kitchen island and grabbed his keys. He was wearing crisp blue slacks and a light blue button up shirt. He matched it with a shiny blue neck tie and black loafers. He'd put his white lab coat on at work. The years of administrative work over the years had taken its toll on him and he learned to dress for both jobs, changing into scrubs only for surgery.

"Can I drive?" Isaac asked, holding his hand out again, this time for the car keys.

"Not this morning, bud. I should have been at work ten minutes ago," Jackson declined and held the door open for Isaac to meet him in the garage.

"Seriously Dad? I just need seven more hours until I can take my test," Isaac groaned, rolling his eyes at the similar looking older man.

Jackson settled into the driver's seat of his Chevy Tahoe and looked over at his son before he started the car. "I don't know what I've said lately to piss you off, but you need to cool it. You've got a good life but a shitty attitude. You'll get your hours in, you're not even sixteen yet. You need to show a little respect, you're an Avery. Avery's ar—" Jackson lectured, finishing his lecture the way his mother had finished hers so many times before.

"Avery's are polite and respectful. They're to always be on their best behavior," Isaac interrupted him, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "I've heard this a million times before, I know Dad. We're Avery's. We're perfect."

"What? No, we're certainly not perfect," he started the car and looked in his rearview mirror before slowly backing out onto the busy street. "But you do have the Avery name and you need to be aware of that. I want you to always be on your best behavior. Be a good man," Jackson finished his impromptu speech. He knew that Isaac was listening to him, even if he acted like he wasn't. He had managed to raise a pretty damn good kid, even if he did have to do it alone.

"Are you sure your Dad doesn't mind if I tag along? I don't want to cut in on your father-son bonding time," Summer teased him playfully but really wanting to make sure she wasn't intruding. They were ditching English and sitting in their favorite spot behind the school.

"You're not intruding, I invited you," Isaac beamed. He was thrilled that Summer was finally giving him the time of day, he'd been head over heels for her since she started at Seattle Prep. "I just wish my dad had someone to go with too. He's been such a prick lately," Isaac whined. His dad never seemed to date anyone. The only person he remembered him dating was some lady named Lexie who he worked with. Even he could tell that their relationship wasn't going anywhere. Not surprisingly it didn't last long either, something about her popping a softball at one of her ex's new girlfriends led to their breakup.

"I know what you mean. My mom is like that too. I swear she's a hermit. She doesn't even try to go out with anyone. It's sad really." Summer laughed. The least she could do was let him know that he wasn't the only one with a lame single parent.

"I just wish my dad would make an effort to try dating someone. It'd be nice to see him happy for once, and maybe then he wouldn't be up my ass so much," he laughed and changed the subject. "Are you coming to my game on Friday?" he asked nervously, hoping that he could see her cheering him on from the stands.

"I have to, I'm on the dance team and we're doing the halftime show. But if we weren't playing it, I'd still come to see you," she said sweetly and then swiftly kissed his cheek from her tip toes. Her pale skin flushed at her own gesture and she grabbed his hand to pull him back towards the school. When they got back she slipped into her first class of the day.

Isaac practically pranced off to AP chemistry, still completely giddy over the kiss he got. She was adorable, so adorable that he couldn't figure out what she even liked about him. He had a lean and tall frame, measuring in at just over six feet tall. His skin was light brown and his eyes were a bright blue-green. Light freckles covered the pathway across the top of his nose and cheeks. She was his completely opposite, in nearly every sense of the word. Short, probably around 5'5 and thin but curvy. She had a lot going on in all the right places and her dancing didn't make it worse, that's for sure. Her hair was auburn red and it was long and curly usually. He couldn't stop thinking about her.

Isaac was easily bored in Chemistry, mostly because he had learned everything in the course in past classes. Math and science classes came easy to him and he planned to follow in his father's footsteps and become a surgeon. He just had to pass Brit Lit first, that was going to be the tricky part. He listened to his teacher make another cheesy chemistry joke, "I'd tell you guys another chemistry joke today, but all the good ones argon." He heard and laughed out loud. Most of the class turned their heads and stared at him, baffled. "Thank you for appreciating my periodic humor, Mr. Avery," his teacher finished, laughing at another chem joke. Apparently he was the only one who got the jokes. Luckily his cell phone buzzed and he was able to forget about his latest embarrassing moment.

When he saw the text was from Summer he lost any concentration he had left for chemistry.

_S: We should set my mom up with your dad. What do u think?_

He seriously pondered the idea before responding. Summer's mom was hot, but he wasn't so sure she was his dad's type. The women he'd seen his dad go out with were all the same… gorgeous but no personality. It was never both. He'd met Summer's mom a couple of times and she was funny and seemed smart too.

_I: You think your mom would go for it?_

_S: Yeah, if we don't warn her ahead of time she can't chicken out. We can bring her to the game tonight. Worth a try. _

_I: Sounds like a plan, see you tonight_

Isaac only hoped his dad would appreciate his effort. Maybe if it worked out he would consider it a birthday present and he wouldn't catch any heat for not actually getting him anything. At least that was the best case scenario.

"Mom! Isaac and his dad invited you and I to the basketball game tonight," Summer hollered up the stairs at her mom when she got home from school. She knew her mom had to be home since she hadn't started her new job yet, since transferring.

There was quiet upstairs before her mom actually replied. "Why do I have to go? You can go, just be home on time, it's a school night," her mom replied from upstairs, obviously missing the whole point of the scheme.

Summer jogged up the stairs and found her mom sitting on her bed, folding laundry. She sat next to her and decided to just be honest with her. "Mom, we were hoping that you would go to keep his dad company. It's his birthday and he's all alone. Don't you want to help?" Summer asked, giving her mom her best puppy dog eyes.

"Well that's….that's sweet Summer that you're thinking about him. But I don't even know him. Plus, you don't even know if he'd be interested in me," she laughed at her daughter who was trying to play matchmaker. She had a big heart, something she liked to think she got from her instead of her ex-husband.

"Mom, please. If you do this, I'll clean the bathroom for a month," Summer bargained, knowing exactly what to say to get her way. Her mom was easy to read, completely predictable. All she had to do was bring up a chore her mom hated doing and she was putty in her hands.

She could tell that her mom was carefully considering the idea, but eventually she gave in. "Fine, you win. He better know that I'm going though, I don't want to just show up randomly," she informed her daughter who was already texting Isaac that her mom was in.

Isaac and Summer thought about telling his dad but thought better of it. Surprising him would be the only way to get him to go along with the idea too. Plus, it was better to give both of them little to no notice so they would just be themselves.

"You're not going to wear that…are you?" Summer asked thoughtlessly, semi hurting her mom's feelings. She only knew she did when she saw her mom frown and look down at her clothes. She thought she looked fine in jeans and a blue sweater.

"Well, I uh—I was planning on it. What's wrong with what I'm wearing?" she asked, wondering how often Summer pretended to like her outfits but just didn't say anything.

"It's just really… mom-ish. You should wear something hot," she teased and started rummaging through her mom's closet. One side was carefully ironed and hung scrubs and the other was personal clothes. She had dress slacks and nice blouses for church along with jeans, hoodies and old concert t-shirts she wore when she cleaned the house. The clothes were color coded for the most part and she liked it that way.

She contemplated trying to look hot or just going as is. But because she hadn't been out with anyone in years, she decided to try and look hot. "Well what in here is…hot?" She stared into her closet like it was her first time looking in it.

"Uh…well…the jeans aren't bad. They actually make your butt look pretty good, I'm surprised. But the top has to go. What about the white short sleeved top you got for Aunt Reed's bridal shower?" the girl asked, sorting through the different tops. That was the cutest one she could find.

"Eh, it felt a little tight…" her mom told her, this time looking at a simple red Henley. "What about this with a pink tank top underneath?"

"Nice. Casual but cute…I like it. Plus, you always look really good in red," her daughter complimented her and left her room so they could both finish getting ready. They met in the living room at the same time Isaac knocked on the front door.

Summer answered while her mom ran to grab her purse from the kitchen counter. "Hey Summer. You look…really pretty," he told her, he looked like he was in awe and the conversation stood still for a minute.

"Thank you, you're sweet," she thanked him again. She loved how he was so kind and genuine all the time. It was one thing to be hot, but another for him to be so nice all the time.

"My dad has no idea," he reminded her, peering back at his dad waiting for them in the car. "Your mom's still coming, right?"

"Hi Isaac, good to see you again," her mom cut in, coming in from the other room. Isaac smiled back politely and they retreated back to the car.

"You can sit up front," Isaac quietly smiled, opening the door for Summer's mom. She smiled awkwardly and scooted in.

Jackson had no idea what was going on. "Uh, hi… I'm Jackson. Isaac—what's going on?" he looked in the back seat and found Isaac and Summer already totally wrapped up in a conversation about one of their teachers.

"Oh, no. They asked me to come and I was under the impression you knew I was coming. I am so sorry," she turned around to shoot her daughter a glare in the backseat and resumed around to find her purse and get out of the car. She was completely embarrassed. Why would she think he wanted her to intrude on their plans?

"Hey, you don't have to go," he begged her, shocked at the words he was saying. He wasn't at a place in his life where he wanted to date but he had this overwhelming need to get her to stay. "Please don't go. It will be fun, I promise."

She looked back at her Summer again and then back at the stranger. "If you're sure that it's not a problem," she countered, looking for the confidant woman she was just a couple of minutes ago.

"I'm Jackson. And I take it you've met Isaac already," he told her, shooting her a smile before pulling back out into traffic.

She nodded. "I'm April. Nice to meet you Jackson."

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**Please, please, please review and let me know what you think so far!**


	2. Sparks Fly

Thank you for the kind reviews everyone! Please keep them coming =)

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"Dad can we sit by ourselves? I don't want Summer to feel like she's on a date with my dad," he begged. He looked back at the girls standing a couple feet behind them at the box office.

Normally Jackson would turn him down, especially since it's his birthday and they supposedly came to celebrate it but he figured it wouldn't hurt this time.

"Alright, but you two better behave," he stated firmly, getting two different sets of tickets at the window. "Can I have the first pair of tickets be a couple rows in front of the second pair?" Jackson asked the lady at the box office, deciding they could keep an eye on Isaac and Summer if they sat in front of them.

She nodded and printed off their tickets while he slid his credit card and showed his ID. Isaac practically tore off with their two tickets and he was left to talk to April alone.

"So has Summer ever done this to you before?" Jackson asked his surprise date while they were ushered to their seats. They weren't great seats but neither one of them were too interested in the basketball game anyway.

"No, never actually. This was the first and last time," she laughed. After getting through the awkwardness of surprising Jackson she figured she would just try and have fun and then never talk to the man again. "What about Isaac?"

He chuckled. "Nah, he doesn't normally even talk to me anymore. I'm guessing this was all Summer's idea," they both seemed in good spirits about it after all. April had to laugh at that too, she should have known her daughter was up to no good.

"I know what you mean. Summer's been a real piece of work lately too. What happened to my adorable little girl?" April thought, reminiscing slightly about the days Summer worshipped her. She used to follow her everywhere, now they just argued.

"Exactly. Isaac used to think the sun shined out my ass. Now he just thinks I am an ass," they both laughed, mostly at Jackson's expense. "But I used to be the same way and I grew out of it, we just have to hope they do too." He reminded her, hoping that time would come sooner rather than later.

She couldn't help but grin at her 'date'. He seemed to be a single father who had a very good head on his shoulders. He was patient with his son but obviously a good role model. Not to mention he was gorgeous. Like put a poster on your wall gorgeous. Her face had to be as red as her blouse, she was sure of it.

"So…April. I know now that you're a hot single mom, but what do you do for work?" Jackson questioned her, starting up another conversation.

"Well, I'm actually finishing up my surgical fellowship at Mercy West. I'm a trauma surgeon," she told him proudly. She certainly earned it; it had only been over a decade in the making. He stared back at her, looking startled.

"What? I can be a trauma surgeon," She told him, shocked that he was so stunned. He didn't seem like the type of guy who believed women belonged in the kitchen.

"What? No, I'm not surprised that you're a surgeon," he laughed at the irony. "It's just ironic, I'm a surgeon too. At Seattle Grace."

"No way, really?" she asked him, grinning at the coincidence. "How often do you just run into another surgeon?" she laughed.

"Almost never," he thought. At least he certainly hadn't. Especially not a gorgeous surgeon that smelled like strawberries.

"What's your specialty?" she asked, her interest in him sparking even more after finding out he was in medicine too.

"Plastics. And no, not just boob jobs," Jackson defended like he was used to.

"Plastics is a very respectable specialty. I know you do a lot more than boob jobs. Plus, I've heard Seattle Grace has a killer burn unit," she chirped, wishing she had gotten her fellowship at Seattle Grace. Seattle Grace was a Level I trauma unit, as opposed to Level II like Mercy West. Lucky for her one of the hospitals she had job offers from was Seattle Grace. If the offer was even semi-competitive she would accept it, knowing fully well that Summer would want to stay at Seattle Prep to finish out high school.

"You know, I think that's the first time anyone has ever said that to me," Jackson beamed. He also thought that this little red head being a trauma surgeon was hot as hell.

He noticed her face flush even deeper and she grinned before looking away from him. He couldn't help but smirk at her modesty. He was already more interested in this woman than he had been in anyone for months, or years even. She was intriguing.

"So it's probably none of my business, but how in the world are you single? Seriously. You're like a great catch," he asked honestly, maybe there was something weird about her that was a deal breaker.

"No, it's okay. I'm divorced. My uh, my ex-husband Matthew left me. He went on a mission trip of all things and came back with a girlfriend." April sighed. She absolutely hated that she was divorced. When she got married she had meant it to be forever. "Now he's happily married with two new kids and living in San Diego."

"Ouch. That is…rough," he responded, feeling obligated to comfort her while she awkwardly reminisced. He soothed her by running his hand up and down her back semi-casually. "Was she at least hot?" Jackson asked her curiously.

"That's what one would think," she told him, laughing. She didn't even think the woman was that attractive, not that she thought she was any prize herself.

"Did it take you long to get over him?" Jackson asked her. He knew from his own situation that it was hard. He was never in love with Isaac's mom and was more pissed than sad when she left but April's situation was a lot different.

"I was really sad about it for a while. The worst kind of sad too, the kind where you know, deep down, that there's nothing you can do even though you wish you could. The kind where you think that it's you…that there's something wrong with you," she told him, journeying back to that dark time in her life. "But I realized that it wasn't me, I didn't do anything wrong. He fell out of love. I guess he didn't take the vows as seriously as I did. But I came to figure out that I didn't want a man who didn't want me. We're actually managing to stay on fairly good terms." She told Jackson who was more than surprised by the confession.

"Really? Wow…that's….admirable," he told her, jealous of her maturity. He knew he wouldn't be able to do the same with Isaac's mother if he had to.

"Yeah, I mean…while I don't condone cheating or the way he did it, I wouldn't have wanted to stay in a basically loveless marriage anyway. He's happy, I can move on too. He is a great father to Summer…" she told him and he still looked unconvinced. "Plus, he paid off all of my student loans because he felt bad," she smiled and Jackson grinned. Now he knew why. Probably close to $200,000 in student debt, completely eliminated, plus the child support and alimony she had to be receiving it made sense for her to play nice. It would be stupid not to. Especially because he had such a good job, and she had earned half of that.

"It's just not worth it to hold on to that anger, I don't want him to have that kind of power over me," April admitted and he admired her for that. She changed the subject. "How about you?"

"Never married. I got Isaac's mom pregnant while we were fifteen and in high school… she didn't want him, I did. I couldn't see aborting some kid who was never even given a chance at life. She ended up agreeing to have the baby but when he was two days old she left and we haven't heard from her since. Isaac's never met her, but that's for the best if you ask me," Jackson insisted. He looked down a couple rows at his son who was pulling out money to buy his date cotton candy.

April frowned and set her hand on his knee. "I think what you did is very honorable." She looked over at him and smiled. She did like how he stepped up. There was nothing more manly than raising a child on his own, but she was sure he got that all the time.

"I would do it again in a heartbeat. Isaac is my life. And I mean you too, seriously. I bet if you're anything like me than you never saw your life ending up this way," he chuckled to himself, he certainly hadn't thought his would, that was for sure.

"No, you're right, I didn't. I just have always had a plan. We're surgeons. We're precise. Careful. But you know how it goes all too well. It's the oldest story in the world. One day, you're fifteen and in love. You're planning for someday. And then quietly, without your ever really noticing, someday is today. And then someday is yesterday. And then this is your life and it's absolutely nothing like you wished it to be but you'd never wish for anything else," She told him, staring straight ahead at the game although she barely understood how it was played.

"That is…true. You know, that's my fear with Isaac… that he'll do the same thing I did. Get some girl pregnant as a teenager and have to go through college and the rest of his young adult life with a baby, like I did…" Jackson sighed and looked over at April. She laughed uncontrollably.

"You remember that Summer is my daughter and you're talking about your son getting her pregnant, right? You better make sure your _kid_ keeps it in his pants," she teased him truthfully. Giving him 'the look' with a raised eyebrow.

He rolled his eyes and leaned across his seat until he was just inches from her face. She stared at him, wondering if he was going to kiss her…already. "Do you want a beer?" he offered with a smirk, the beer guy was standing next to him in the aisle.

"Uh, well it's a… sure, thanks." She ended up deciding. Jackson bought them both a beer and called for the cinnamon roasted almonds guy too. She thanked him for the nuts and beer to which he beamed happily "Sure, no problem." Hot cinnamon roasted almonds were the way to her heart. She picked at the nuts and he stole a few occasionally from her.

"So do you have any idea about what is going on in this game? Do you follow basketball?" Jackson quizzed her knowing she didn't because she hasn't made a comment about the game all night and she looked like he did the first time he watched _Inception_.

"Uh, well you know…no," she giggled at her own attempt of deceit. It failed.

"You are so damn cute," Jackson told her surprisingly, even though they just met. Her date stared at her in shock. He couldn't get enough of her…her red hair, soft skin that he kept brushing up against and her distinctive voice. His favorite part of her was already her laugh, which she seemed to do a lot around him. He had never felt sparks with someone like he did with her, nor had he ever been so forward on a first date.

Summer saw Isaac turning around to check on his dad. "So you really think they're hitting it off?" he asked her, unconvinced. "Yeah Isaac, I do. If they weren't my mom would have ditched this place by pretending the hospital paged her for something."

"That's true. My dad probably would have done the same thing, not like he hasn't done it before," Isaac agreed, snacking on the rest of his popcorn. Summer turned around this time and saw their parents holding hands and her eyes widened to the size of quarters. She showed Isaac and they couldn't believe their plan had worked.

The final buzzer went off and the game was over, they lost. Detroit Pistons beat them 89-86 in the final seconds. It was a good game but to be honest none of the four of them cared too much about the outcome one way or another.

They met their parents outside at the car. "So did you two have fun?" Summer asked cheerfully, like they should be thanking her. To her liking they looked at each other and grinned before answering her question. Her mom got in the car and soon after Isaac's dad did too.

When they pulled into the Taylor's driveway, they each said their goodbyes and ran into the house. April put her number in his phone and he did the same. She really liked him and she couldn't help but text him right away.

Jackson and Isaac pulled into their driveway just after eleven at night. Not bad, especially for Seattle traffic. He thought it'd be much later. "Dad, since when do you carry a purse?" Isaac asked him, holding up a small black purse with a thin short strap.

"That—is not mine. It must be April's. He snatched it from his son and they went up into the house. Isaac was in the kitchen making himself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before bed so Jackson knew he found his chance to interrogate him. He was surprised when Isaac started the conversation.

"I'm glad you clearly like Summer's mom and all, but can you try less PDA? We did not need to see the hand holding and rubbing and stuff. Gross, Dad" Isaac grumbled peevishly.

"Summer liked it, she said 'aw'," he told Isaac matter-of-factly. "Yeah well, it makes me uncomfortable," Isaac told him.

"So, did you two interdigitate?" Jackson nudged his son all while changing the subject, recalling seeing his son attempt the move where you slyly put your arm around her shoulder, but remembering how awkward it looked. He did see them holding hands for sure though from up in their seats.

"Dad, no one calls it that. It's just holding hands. And mind your own business, don't be weird," Isaac rolled his eyes embarrassingly at his father.

"Is—you know what I mean. Hold hands," Jackson rolled his eyes in response and watched his sons lips turn up into a full smile before he went back to his room to eat his sandwich.

Jackson's phone vibrated from his pocked and when he checked it he saw that it was from April already.

_A: I left my purse in your car, would it be okay if I came to get it really quick? I know it's late, sorry._

_J: Yeah, no problem. 11422 Park Ave_

She waited until Summer went to bed and left. About ten minutes later she pulled into his driveway and he met her outside. She gathered from his candidness that Isaac was sleeping too.

He must have found her purse for her earlier because he was waiting to hand it back to her when she got out of her car. "Even your purse is cute," he said, still looking at the little black bag and grinning.

The same smile was still melting on her face and when he handed her purse to her she set it on the roof of her car and turned back around to face him. Jackson was moving in closer to April until he had her back pinned to the car and his hands landed on either side of her.

"You smell delightful," he told her as his hands fell from the car down to her hips and he moved in a little closer.

"Thank you," she told him quietly, still staring up into his bright eyes. She hooked her hands around his waist and slid them up his long back and then up around his shoulders.

He mumbled something nearly inaudible that sounded like a 'no problem' to her and she noticed his piercing eyes darting between her eyes and her mouth.

"Can I kiss you?" Jackson asked her huskily, just inches away from her face. She was hoping he would so she nodded. It wasn't like her to be this forward either, but everything about him was screaming yes.

When he kissed her, her whole body tingled. He couldn't believe how soft her lips were and he had wanted to kiss them all night. She could feel his tongue dart across her lips and so she opened her mouth a little more to allow him access. The amazing kiss turned into him dropping soft kisses across her jaw and down her neck. She felt paralyzed from his touch, like all she could do was tilt her head to the side further and allow him better contact.

"Mmm" slipped from April's lips which only enticed him to more groan in response. That alone had him close to pulling her jeans down and hiking her legs around his waist. He was caught off guard when she mumbled his name softly when his large hands squeezed her bottom.

He wanted to take her right there but they had only just gone on one date and he already knew she wasn't that kind of woman.

Since he knew they wouldn't go any further than a far first base, he finally took a step back. She took a minute to rearrange herself, pulling her shirt and camisole back down from where he had pulled it up her torso and smoothed out her hair.

"That was… I mean you—that wasn't why I came over here, I promise," she giggled, looking back at the first man who almost had her out of her pants on the first date.

"Oh, please. Like you didn't leave your purse in my car on purpose," Jackson teased her, while reaching over her shoulder to pull her purse off the roof of her car and hand it to her. He had one eyebrow raised higher than the other and she laughed again but never responded.

"Can I take you out alone soon? Without our kids?" he proposed, really hoping that she would say yes. The five minute make-out session only left him wanting more. He'd been out on dates here and there but never with a woman that he felt such immediate intensity for.

"I was hoping you would ask," she teased him. At the same time, she straightened his hoodie and pulled the zipper back up from where she opened it. For the first time, she understood serendipity.

"How about tomorrow night? I'll pick you up at 7?" he asked her, he was hopeful that she would agree to going out again so soon.

"I guess so," she told him, holding her bottom lip between her teeth. He looked down at her confused, like maybe he misinterpreted how their date went. It was the best date he had ever been on, despite the circumstances. "It's just too far away."

"You scared me for a minute," he sighed in relief. Never in his life had he felt nervous about being rejected by someone, he normally did the rejecting.

"Oh, and Jackson?" April called for him. "Yeah?"

"Happy birthday," she grinned, excited that he actually had a good time on his blind birthday date.

He sighed in relief and gave her one final kiss before walking her over to the driver's side of her car and opening the door for her. After she said goodbye he watched her buckle up and he closed her door for her. She sped away and took his heart with her.


	3. Date Night

**Oh. I moved this to an M rating. I hope that's okay. Please review!**

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The next day all he could think about was April. She smelled like strawberries and cream, simple but intoxicating at the same time. He'd never seen a woman so naturally beautiful before and her red hair was gorgeous. She had the body type that was perfect…slim but curvy in all the right places. Last night he figured out that her ass was the perfect part of her for him to hold on to. His favorite thing about her was her laugh. She mostly giggled and he loved being the one to make her laugh. He'd wanted to text her or call her all day but didn't want to come across as clingy. These feelings were new to him and his heart raced just at the thought of her.

"Dude, you've been grinning like an idiot all day. What's your problem?" his friend Alex asked him in the cafeteria. He was motioning to the cafeteria lady to give him another scoop of mashed potatoes, she didn't seem to be amused by his manners, or lack thereof. Jackson took his one scoop and shrugged.

"It's nothing. I don't want to talk about it," he told him. They'd only been on one date and he didn't want to jinx it. He felt like they'd been on many.

"You can't say that and expected me not be curious. Now spill it," Alex ordered him and this time Jackson shrugged once more but explained why he was so happy.

"…So long story short, Isaac and his little girlfriend Summer surprised me by bringing her mom but I actually had a really good time. I'm going out with her again tonight." He told his friend, beaming at the very thought of April. He was completely taken by her. That one kiss he had left him hooked.

"Man, that sex must have been good if you're that excited to see her again," he shook his head in disbelief. Jackson corrected him, they hadn't had sex, just made out a little. Alex didn't believe him but Jackson let it go, not really caring what Karev believed.

They sat down at a cafeteria table with his ex, Lexie Grey, and her sister Meredith Grey along with her best friend Cristina Yang. Karev kept unnecessarily bringing up April.

"You're banging a woman whose name is April and her daughter's name is Summer?" he asked, which grabbed the rest of the tables attention immediately.

Cristina put it together first. "Wait a minute, you're dating your kids girlfriends mom? So if you two get married he'd be dating his sister? Good one," she mocked and then turned back to Meredith so they could finish their own conversation about who would kill who first in the case of an actual apocalypse.

"You're getting a little ahead of yourself Yang. Besides, I doubt those two are endgame. It's a teenage crush," Jackson told himself, no one else even cared anymore. They all had better things to talk about.

Later that night Jackson paced in front of his the mirror in his closet, trying to decide on the right shirt. He tried on a white button up shirt first but decided it looked to formal. He settled on a plain white t-shirt with his black jacket, blue jeans and his favorite Air Jordans. He knew not to dress too formally, they were just going out for a casual dinner and to the hospital.

They went to a local pub for dinner, he was looking forward to the laid back atmosphere. The formal dinners and evenings he had to spend with the Harper Avery Foundation were all the uptight he could handle.

He walked up to her door to pick her up and she came out dressed out in a black skirt that ended just above her knees, black tights and a forest green blouse. He couldn't believe how good she made that outfit look.

April surprised him when she ordered a local stout beer, he ordered the same. She got a spinach salad that had mandarin oranges, goat cheese, dried cranberries and slivered almonds on it. He couldn't help himself and got a barbeque bacon burger and French fries.

"Normally I watch what I eat a little bit better than this, but their burgers are delicious here," he told her and she laughed then apologized for being 'that girl' who orders a salad.

"It just sounded really good. I'm all about good food though, I love to cook," she told him as she stole one of his French fries. He had to laugh at that.

"What do you like to cook?" he asked her curiously. He knew nothing. Sandwiches and cereal consisted of most of the Avery men's meals. During medical school his mom had their meals catered each week and it lasted them a week each time, but he didn't want that privilege to last. It was helpful during medical school though.

"A variety of food really. I make a really good eggplant lasagna. I'm all about healthier options, I try to get Summer to eat well but she's stuck on the crap that most teenagers eat," she complained and Jackson nodded in agreement.

"I know what you mean. I have no idea how Isaac isn't 300 pounds right now. He eats crap all day long. I'll probably gain 5 pounds from this burger," Jackson played and had April cracking up. "I know what you mean, I'll probably gain weight from watching you eat it."

When they finished their meal he told her the next part of their date was a surprise. She didn't like the surprise part and was anxious the whole way there.

"I thought that maybe since you were hoping to join us at Seattle Grace, I could give you the tour. I could show things that no normal tour guide would show you, like where to go and relieve stress when you've lost a patient or which lounge has the best snacks," he smirked at his creativity because she looked excited now that she wasn't in the dark about their plans any longer.

"Oh! That would be… amazing. That is so thoughtful of you Jackson," April shined, looking around the busy lobby of Seattle Grace Hospital.

"This is the coffee cart, if you're as addicted to coffee as I am then you'll hit this up quite a bit, they have the best black coffee around. It's strong. Don't tell me you're one of those latte or fancy macchiato girls," Jackson joked, she shook her head no. "Black coffee, one sugar," she told him.

"You're perfect," he complimented and ordered them both a small coffee, his black and hers with a sugar. "This is really delicious. You're right," she told him as he grabbed her other hand to start her tour. She sipped her coffee while they walked.

They waited for an elevator to go to the surgical floor since she was more than eager to see that part of the hospital. When they stepped in they saw a man in his late 30's/early 40's with thick brown hair who greeted Jackson personally and April pleasantly. It was glaringly obvious that the wallpaper behind him was a giant cheesy picture of him smiling and it was beyond creepy. April looked over at Jackson, back to the other man in the elevator and then back to the picture on the back wall of the elevator.

"Is that.. is that you?" she asked, confused and slightly laughing.

"Jesus Avery, when are you going to take those down?" he asked Jackson and then got off on the next floor. Avery was cracking up at that point.

"I can't make myself take them down, they're so funny. He looks like an idiot," he laughed and April shook her head like she knew she shouldn't be laughing but it was too funny and awkward not to be. Jackson also explained the plane crash situation that killed off one of their doctors… a Dr. Stark that was relatively new from the hospital and that his family had sued the hospital. After they paid the large settlement they needed another backer and that's where the Harper Avery Foundation came in and hence Jackson's administrative roll in the hospital.

"Wow. That's awful. That's the only thing I'm nervous about, I've heard that at least once a year, and usually around May some crazy things happen to the people here. Maybe it's the level I trauma status? Or coincidence?" she asked him.

He knew she was right and just shrugged. He had never quite been able to understand the irony of the timing himself but was starting to get nervous every year at about that time that he'd be next.

The next thing he showed her was the OR board and the operating rooms. She marveled at the equipment and the space. The gallery was still shocking to her even though she had sat in it a few times to watch procedures during her residency. The only surgery going on at the moment was an appendectomy but it was still cool to see the OR in motion, even if it was a boring surgery.

"Can we sit up in the gallery?" she asked him timidly and he grinned and pointed to the stairway leading up to it. They were the only ones up there and when they sat down they saw the surgeon look up at them confused. She was an unusually short and African American woman who was clearly in charge of everything.

"Avery, what are you doing up there?" she asked, looking up at him and the red head next to him. Her intern continued with the procedure, glancing up only momentarily.

"Just observing Dr. Bailey, please continue," he smiled and she gave him one more glare before continuing her lecture to the intern and shrugging.

Jackson and April continued their conversations, all the while watching pieces of the surgery. Jackson was amused that she was so in love with their OR and thought that may have won her over by itself. They both laughed when they heard Dr. Bailey scold the intern she was teaching for taking too much time with one of the incisions and then scolding the intern for shaking after she reamed them out.

"They call her the Nazi," he laughed and April giggled. "Fitting."

"Do you mind if I check on a couple post-ops real quick? I'd leave it to my interns but they're somewhat incapable. I know it's kind of lame for a date," he teased, grabbing her hand and pulling her back with him towards the creepy elevator.

"I don't mind at all, Jackson. It's actually kind of excited. Like behind the scenes. Plus I kinda liked my plastics rotation. I think it would have been my second cho—no wait, third choice if it wasn't for trauma," April giggled. He could tell that she was ordering her favorite specialties up numerically in her head so he waited for her to look finished.

"What would have been your second choice?" He probed, genuinely curious.

"Neuro. I almost chose it after our fourth year trauma certification training I found trauma was my calling. I love it," April enlightened him, she was still giddy over even just talking about her specialty.

"That's how I felt about plastics. My family mostly specializes in cardio and they expected that of me too. They still do. Like after years I'm just going to switch specialties," Jackson rolled his eyes, laughing at the absurdity of their assumptions. His sister regularly asked him if he was ready to give up boob jobs for Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting. It was a weekly thing. She'd call, offend him and promise to call again same time next week.

After they checked on his post-ops, they toured a couple different attendings lounges and then he took her to the pit. Trauma. Her future home he hoped. She carefully inspected the nursing station, the beds, the equipment and the overall functionality of the unit, after all she hoped that if she were to choose Seattle Grace that she would be spending the duration of her career there.

Jackson watched her wander around and take everything in, wondering what she was thinking about. She was so quiet. When they mini-tour ended back at the nursing station she finally spoke up, "Wow, I'm impressed. The only thing that would make this trauma unit more impressive is a Lodox," she teased him, knowing full well after reading about them in her medical journals that they were ridiculously expensive.

"That can be arranged," he grinned and reached his arm around her shoulder, playing with her thick hair in the process.

"Jackson, I was kidding," she laughed, she only mentioned a Lodox in her joking because it was too absurd to be taken seriously.

"Come on, there's one more spot I want to take you," he guided her back down the busy hallway to the awkward elevator and up to the top floor. They walked through a hallway full of administrative offices, she even noticed one that said Dr. Jackson Avery on the name plate but she didn't mention it and he didn't bring it up either. He opened a door that lead to a stairway and that door opened up onto the roof.

"Cheesy, I know. But it really is kind of cool up here," he bragged as he propped the door open with the brick that had been set nearby. She gazed at Seattle, looking star struck or like it was her first time seeing the city she's lived in for nearly 15 years.

"You like it?" he asked after a couple minutes of silence. April nodded and he took his jacket off and helped her to slide it on before wrapping his arms around her. She was freezing.

"What are you thinking?" Jackson whispered in her ear.

"God, I just love the sounds of this city. Moline was small and hollow feeling… you could see all of the stars in the sky, which believe me are beautiful, but…you'll never get that in the city. There's just something about the sounds of everyone cohabiting this place that is like nothing else," she breathed, staring across at the lit up city scape. "There's something about a place that can make you feel so small. It makes your problems feel small,"

He nodded while still using his hands to warm up hers. "I just think sometimes people forget about the little things that make us feel amazing, you know? Like jumping into a lake on a 90 degree day or when you wake up at 3:00 am and still have hours left to sleep. Or you know…you know that feeling when you put on warm jeans that have just come out of the dryer?" He chuckled at her outburst but thought about each thing she mentioned. She was right. He never took the time to appreciate little things like that anymore.

They had so much more to talk about, so many things to learn about each other but for the next couple of minutes they appreciated the comfortable silence. They admired the view, the sound and even the smell of the city.

April broke the silence with her admission, "I don't know how to do relationships anymore. I don't want to get hurt again," she confessed to her date. Jackson looked at the small woman who captured his attention without even trying. In that moment she looked scared and exposed.

"I won't hurt you April, I promise," Jackson assured her. "You have no idea how fast my heart races when I'm you." He told her, grabbing one of her hands that were linked behind his neck and holding it up to his heart. She blinked rapidly just trying to count the rhythm.

April nodded to show she believed him and leaned up to kiss him again. Their second kiss was just as intoxicating as their first. She wanted more and she showed him by pulling him in closer and wrapping herself around him tightly. Jackson moaned at the contact and slid his hands up the back of her shirt again. He was freezing cold since she had his jacket and she felt toasty warm. His hands roamed the sides of her torso until they found her breasts, which he softly squeezed. He didn't back up, since seeing that she was clearly enjoying the contact too.

His pager chose that moment to go off, something it did regularly. The hospital had a habit of paging him at the worst times possible.

"Ugh," he groaned, pulling the small pager off his belt. "I have to take this quickly. Excuse me for just a moment?" Jackson asked the woman, apologetically. She smiled a nodded. It was odd being on the other side of the table, normally she was leaving to go answer her page.

He came back wearing a full-on smile and told her that he didn't actually have to come in. A resident just wanted to verify the diagnosis. That kind of thing used to bother him but in the end he'd rather them ask rather than have to deal with a malpractice claim.

"I know I should probably take you home, but I don't want to," he confessed. They began down the stairs from the roof and took the elevator back down to the lobby.

"I don't have to be home yet. Summer is house sitting at Matthew's sisters tonight. I can stay out as late as I want and I won't even get in trouble," April teased, smiling widely as they both thought of the possibilities.

"Really?" he asked, intrigued by her candidness. "Mhmm" was all she said and they left to make their way back to her house. He was probably driving a little faster than he should but she could understand why. She hadn't had sex for a couple years…since her ex-husband. He seemed just as anxious to her, judging by his white knuckles and all.

"Where's Isaac tonight?" She asked questioned, wondering how he was getting away with being gone on his date for so long. He grinned back at her. "He's at basketball. But I told him I would be stopping by the hospital to check on a few patients after our date. Which wasn't an entire lie, since we checked on them while we there…" He had a goofy smile on his face and hers blushed over.

He pulled into her driveway and made his way around his car to open the door for her. It was dark out, the only light coming from the sparse streetlights and the motion sensitive light on her porch. They stopped at her front porch when she starting digging in her purse for her house keys.

His hands settled on her hips and wrapped around her slim waist. "Jackson," she giggled, looking quickly behind her at the man close behind her, kissing the crook of her neck.

April took the first step inside as soon as she got the door unlocked and Jackson was right behind her. He had her back up against the wall beside the door in a matter of seconds. His hands landed on both sides of her face, against the wall.

"Summer?" April hollered, barely pulling her lips away from his. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

She smiled at his expression. "I'm just making sure she's not here for some reason. That would be awful," she continued giggling. "Mhmm," he agreed roughly, taking the silence to mean she wasn't.

Jackson quickly moved his hands under her thighs and hoisted her up against the wall. He groaned when she made a slight moaning sound and she immediately wrapped her legs tightly around his waist.

He held her up against him with only one arm, while he took her up the stairs to where he assumed her bedroom was.

"Last," kiss, "door on," kiss, kiss, "the left," she told him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and rubbing her hands across the rough hair on the back on his head.

He kicked the door shut behind him, and let her continue unbuttoning his shirt. He slid his hands up her skirt, pulling her panties back down with him and going around to the back of her skirt afterwards to unzip it and pull that down next.

She let his shirt fall to the floor and went for his belt, only breaking her grip on the buckle momentarily in order to allow him to pull her blouse up over her shoulders. Jackson had her bra unclasped before she could even get his jeans completely unbuttoned and unzipped.

After he pulled her bra down her arms, his hands tangled into her thick, red hair and he groaned at the feeling she was giving him. Her skin and her hair were so soft that he could barely take it. Just pressing up against her was almost enough for him to finish quickly, but he couldn't.

He somewhat roughly set her down on her bed and crawled over top of her. She could feel how excited he was, he was firmly pressing into her thigh while his lips left hers and found their way to her chest.

Her head rolled back into the pillow when he took her nipple into his mouth and traced his tongue around it. Her chest was heaving up and down and she was already trying to catch her breath. She wrapped her legs around the man between her legs when he moved over to her other breast and did the same thing with that nipple.

Jackson stopped what he was focused on and looked up at her, "Do you have a condom? I wasn't prepared," he admitted, losing focus again, only to linger back up to her lips. He felt her shake her head no and he looked up at her.

"I don't. I haven't been with anyone in… years. Even if I did they would probably be expired," she laughed. "I'm on the birth control though?" she asked, more of as a question than a statement. She started taking it again a couple months ago for menstrual reasons.

He locked eyes with her. "Are you sure?". It wasn't an are you sure you're on it, but more of are you sure it's okay. Jackson waited for her just a second or two until she nodded, pulling her bottom lip in between her teeth. He smiled naughtily and gave her one last soft kiss before slowly pushing into her. Her back arched into the air and he tangled his hands in her hair.

He was caught off guard when she rolled them over so that she was on top of him. His head hit the pillow and he grinned while she straddled his waist. She leaned forward to kiss him, holding his face between her hands. He was enjoying the ride she was taking so much that his hands found her ass and squeezed.

"Ohh," she giggled, picking herself up and sliding down him even harder. His hands were still tightly palming her ass cheeks and she was dropping kisses down his neck.

"This," he mumbled, "is really, really nice," Jackson finished, while he softly smacked one side of her ass. He caught her off guard and she let out a slight gasp, before he twisted them and pushed her down onto her back and hovered above her.

His lips immediately found hers and he enjoyed how swollen her lips were already. They tasted like strawberries, the kind with a little sugar sprinkled on top. It had only been a couple of minutes and he was already trying to hold on. Luckily for him just a few minutes after that he felt her start to tremble and he was able to come with her.

After he finished kissing her one last time he gently pulled out and collapsed onto his back next to her. She was trying to catch her breath and so was he.

"I don't want you to think that I'm like… a slut…and just do that all the time," Jackson leaned over and admitted to April, giving her a crooked smile. He was still mesmerized by her eyes, her perfectly wavy hair and definitely by her smell.

April rolled over onto her side to look directly at him and he did the same. "Oh, please. I bet you take tons of women to bed. How could you not? You're like…gorgeous. And perfect," she teased, rolling her eyes at him.

He didn't respond right away, only taking time to figure out the best way to tell her that he hadn't been with anyone other than his ex-girlfriend Lexie and one other past co-worker since being with Isaac's mom.

"Not really… Two. Well, three, if you count Isaac's mom," he admitted and could tell she didn't believe him, not even a little bit. "Seriously. I've just never really been that into anyone. Isaac's mom just because I was a horny teenager and she was…there. Honestly. Lexie because I thought I liked her, which I do, but definitely not like that. It was pretty mutual too. And the other one was Stephanie. She was in my first group of interns that I had. This sounds vain but she just was interested in my name. After that I basically gave up on women," he told her. She was clearly lost in her own thoughts, processing all of the information. Like how in the world could a medically famous and beautiful surgeon have only been with three women…ever.

"Until I just met you," he admitted, leaning over her to place another small kiss on her lips. He brushed her thick hair out of her face and locked eyes with her. She knew that he hadn't even hesitated about being with her, and she didn't either. She wasn't the type to just jump into bed with a guy after the first or second date but she had to have him. Something about the whole thing felt right.

"We just met a couple days ago, how in the world could you know you have such feelings for me?" April asked. She had questions that she needed answers to.

"I just knew. As soon as I dropped you off after the game, I couldn't keep my mind off you. I thought about you all night, and it got worse after you came to get your purse. Normally I can't even remember the name of the women I take out on a date. But with you I swear I spent twenty minutes just thinking about the way that silver cross necklace dangled across your chest. And another ten minutes wondering how exactly you managed to smell like my favorite strawberry shortcake dessert," Jackson admitted, settling in the crook of her neck, inhaling the scent he was already addicted to again.

She moaned and told him, "I can't decide if your eyes are green or blue," and he chuckled, staring back at hers. "Yours are hazel. And gorgeous." Soon after he went in for round two.

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**What do you think?!**


	4. First Day

**I keep thinking Grey's is on tonight. Hopefully this will help some of you get by...**

**PS: I wanted to thank all of you for your awesome feedback! A special shoutout to Maureen who I can't message back because of her guest status...but you are amazing and I love your reviews so so much!**

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April zipped around her house getting ready for her first day. Summer was getting ready for school at the same time. "So are you excited mom?" Summer asked cheerfully. She noticed April standing in front of her full length mirror and she appeared to be holding several different outfits up.

"Very. A little anxious too, but I think it'll be okay." April shined, her faith and positivity outweighing her apprehension.

"That's good. I'm glad," she smiled, genuinely happy that her mom was finally in a better place. She knew this was something that her mother had been working toward for years, something she had really earned. April could tell Summer had something on her mind but seemed nervous to bring it up.

"What's going on Summer? What do you want?" April asked perceptively. They'd done this dance before. Only this time Summer rolled her eyes instead of just asking for something.

"Nothing. Really. I guess… I was just wondering how things are going with you and Dr. Avery? Are you still talking to him?" she asked curiously. She couldn't decide if she hoped her mom was or wasn't seeing him. She honestly didn't think that their set-up would go that well, but on the other hand she wanted nothing more than to see her mom happy like she used to be.

She watched her mom as she digested the question and thought carefully about her answer. "I am still seeing him. We've gone out a couple of times and now I will be working at Seattle Grace with him. That was really sweet of you and Isaac Summer," April smiled at her daughter. Summer had a huge heart, even though she was slow to show it lately. Especially to her mother.

"I'm glad. You deserve it. Plus, Dr. Avery seems like a really great guy. And you two must have a lot in common," she listed and April nodded. She agreed, he was a great guy and they had more in common than she would have believed. April was really impressed by Summer's thoughtfulness.

Summer gave her mom a quick peck on her cheek and took off for school. Isaac was waiting in front of the house in his new car for her.

April was genuinely anxious for her first day as a Trauma Attending at Seattle Grace. She was used to Mercy West. She knew the ORs there, the pit, her co-workers and most importantly their policies. She was such a stickler for policy and having to learn new policy was going to be trying. The checklist she had implemented for Mercy West was no doubt going to be inconsistent with the policies of Seattle Grace, so she'd have to make a new one as soon as possible.

* * *

April got to the hospital a good half hour early. She found the attending's lounge and locker room. They were actually pretty easy to find since she remembered most places from Jackson's tour. After she changed into her navy blue scrubs and put her white lab coat on, she roamed around looking for Jackson but didn't see him anywhere. His name wasn't on the OR board until later in the afternoon. She texted him to let him know she was at the hospital already. It was just a couple of minutes and she caught sight of him jogging down the hall towards her where she was standing near the nurses' station in the pit.

"Hi," he greeted her, leaning in and stealing a good morning kiss. He held onto the sides of her face until he was done locking lips with her.

"Hi," she responded finally, slightly out of breath. He was grinning ear-to-ear. Her working at the same hospital would give them a lot more time together and they wouldn't even have to be sneaky about it.

"Jackson, it's probably not a good idea to make out in the middle of the hospital, where I haven't even started my new job yet," she giggled, "I don't want people to get the wrong impression."

"I do. I want everyone to know that you're taken. I don't know if you've heard but there tends to be a lot of drama here. We're not going to be part of it," he chuckled, she blushed. Even when she was first with Matthew he never acted so territorial over her, she actually liked how Jackson wanted to make sure no one tried to get with her. She felt the same way about him.

April playfully rolled her eyes at him. She liked it, but wasn't sure if he should know that or not.

Since he knew she still had fifteen minutes until her shift started, he grinned at her and pulled her into the closest on call room. She was powerless when it came to him, or at least she felt that way. He pinned her up against the wall before she even knew what was happening.

"You look so sexy in your white coat," he mumbled, all the while pulling it off of her. She nodded and pulled his off him in response. Just a couple of seconds later all of his clothes were shed, and he had her down to her bra and panties. Her red hair dangling over her porcelain skin contrasted stunningly with her purple undergarments. Jackson groaned at the sight of her and let April feel what exactly looking at her like that did to him. She gasped when she felt how hard he was.

Instead of taking the time to pull her panties off, he pulled the fabric to the side and slowly pushed into her. She let out a loud gasp and he felt her nails dig into his back. His hands rested under her thighs until he hiked her up and she wrapped her legs instinctively around his waist.

Jackson set up a faster rhythm and listened to her let out a louder moan every time he pushed into her even further. The way her nails were digging into him was making it even more difficult for him to hang on.

"Did you like the flowers?" he asked from the crook of her neck. April pushed him away just a tad, enough to look up at him confused. "What flowers?"

"You didn't see them? They were on the nurses station right where I came and found you a few minutes ago," he laughed, especially after watching his eyebrows furrow in confusion. She hadn't noticed any flowers for her there, but then again she was a frazzled bundle of nerves.

"I saw them, but I had no idea they were mine," April beamed. She leaned in for more kisses and Jackson gave her a soft one that turned into more again. After a few more kisses, she pulled away again. "Thank you."

She didn't get a you're welcome from him, instead more of a groan. He walked them back towards the small bed in the corner and settled on top of her, still buried inside.

Her head was thrown back into the pillows as he was thrusting into her deeper and deeper. The angle that he was using to slam into her got her off almost right away. He felt her start to tremble underneath him and he watched her come down from the high. He was close himself and when she opened her eyes he gave her a look that clearly meant he was asking for permission to keep going. When he felt her link her arms together even tighter behind him he took that as a yes and started going again.

_Beep, beep, beep_.

Jackson stopped and April rolled him off of her flat onto his back and sprang out of bed. "Oh my God. I'm supposed to meet Dr. Hunt at the pit this second for orientation!" She adjusted her bra and pulled her scrubs on quickly while running down the hallway.

"…come back," Jackson mumbled to an empty room. He saw two nurses laughing from the hallway at the scene that just unfolded and he jumped up to shut the door she left open. Then he had no choice but to finish what she started or find a cold shower.

* * *

April found her new boss, Dr. Hunt, waiting irritatingly at the nurses station. "Dr. Kepner, so nice of you to join us," he told her pointedly. "Dr. Hunt, I am so, so sorry," she chattered and noticed his blatant stare back at her.

"What?" she asked, "Oh God. Is there something on me? What?"

"Dr. Kepner, your top is inside out and backwards." He told her, letting her nervously explain and adjust her clothing. She should have known better than to jump into bed twenty minutes before her first shift at a new job. She was mortified.

"Dr. Avery told me that he already gave you the tour, so I'm assuming we can skip that part of orientation, yes?" he asked, she nodded agreeingly. It was the least she could do. "Alright then. This is your desk and I see that you've already been given your pager and cell phone. The nurses down here are wonderful so if you have any questions feel free to ask them or you can always come find me. I'm scrubbing in with Dr. Yang in cardio later this morning so I won't be available until after around one o'clock," Dr. Hunt lectured her appropriately and waited to see if she had any questions. "Good luck, Dr. Kepner."

After Dr. Hunt walked away she made a bee-line for her flowers to check the card. It was a huge arrangement of magenta and orange roses. They were beautiful and springy. She leaned in to smell them but was interrupted by her a nurse.

"Dr. Kepner, we have an incoming trauma. ETA seven minutes. Twenty seven year old pregnant female. Car accident, baby is in distress," a nurse who she hadn't been introduced to yet informed her. Here it was, do or die. Her first incoming trauma as an attending at Seattle Grace. She quickly pulled on and tied her gown over her scrubs and made her way to the ambulance drop-off entry way.

As soon as the ambulance arrived she was informed the same information by the EMT, but in those seven minutes the adult female had started coding.

Dr. Kepner worked to stabilize her and do an ultrasound. The baby had a fast and uneven heart rate and she started having contractions. April found the contractions to be just two minutes apart and knew she'd have to do an emergency c-section.

"Book an OR right away, page anesthesiology and gyno," she ordered the same nurse who she talked to just twenty minutes ago. In normal circumstances best case scenario would be to wait until gyno got there, but the cord became wrapped around the babies neck and she knew they had just minutes.

"Is my baby going to be okay? Save her, I don't care about myself!" the patient begged. She was holding onto her protruding belly tightly, staring up at Dr. Kepner.

"I'm going to do everything I can to make sure both you and your baby are okay, I promise you this. This is important Alyssa, is there anyone that we can call for you? The babies father? Parents?" April asked her worried patient.

Alyssa shook her head no. "My husband is in Afghanistan and I don't have a relationship with my parents. No family. My husband and baby mean everything to me. I'm only twenty seven weeks, he was supposed to be home for my scheduled c-section," she told her doctor anxiously. She was devastated and nervous and there was nothing April could do to calm her down.

"Okay then. Well I'm going to have a nurse prep you quickly and we will be taking you in. Do you have any allergies? Any at all?" she asked and the woman shook her head no.

April gave her patient her best reassuring smile. "We will see you in just a little bit."

After almost an hour of a complicated c-section, no gyno help and scrounging to stop bleeding, April managed to close up with both a safe mother and child.

The mother was wheeled to recovery and the baby to NICU just to be sure. She planned to go talk to the mother as soon as she woke up. In the meantime she took her spare couple of minutes to go find Jackson in his upstairs office.

When she found his name on the door at the end of the hallway she knocked a couple of times and waited. "Come in," he offered sternly. He didn't even look up from his paperwork. She'd never been so turned on my financial statements and grant proposals.

He didn't look up until he noticed the visitor walk around to his side of his desk. "Hey you. How's your first day going?" he asked. While she climbed on top of him and adjusted into a straddling position she shook her head. "Good. Great, actually. I'm like, important here. It's nice…" she smiled.

Jackson studied her face. "Of course you're important. You're one of our star surgeons. Definitely our sexiest trauma surgeon," he complimented her and slid his hands under her top. She surprised him by pulling off his scrub top right away and squeezing his biceps and moaning.

"You're so sexy when you're concentrating on policies and grants," April admitted darkly to him. She started whispering even dirtier things in his ear. "It makes me want to rip your pants off and screw you right here."

She noticed the vein in his forehead prominently bulge out, among other things. He peppered kisses all over her face and one last one on her mouth. She jumped off him to pull her pants and panties down and he pulled his down just to his knees and sat back down. April steady herself above him and quickly slid down his length.

Jackson grunted louder every time she sunk down on his cock. Watching her shake on top of him and feeling her clench around him was almost too much to take. He reached up and pulled the hair tie out of her hair and watched it fall around her shoulders.

April pulled herself up and gripped the top of the chair he was sitting in. She rode him faster and faster until her orgasm took over and his came just seconds after.

"Does this make up for skipping out on you earlier?" she whispered into his ear, still surrounding him in her warmth.

He didn't answer her right away, which caused her to smirk when she noticed him gasping for air. "Uh huh," he finally told her. She jumped off him when she heard his door click open.

* * *

**Please review!**


	5. Caught

**I love you all. I'm just saying... :)**

* * *

"Jackson! Who in the world is-?" the woman gasped, pointing at April who was nestled on top of him.

April jumped up, which caused Jackson to spring up in pain. He spun them around so the back of the chair was facing the doorway and they were facing the wall.

"Get out Mom! I mean it! Now!" he shouted at her. His voice was harsh and stern.

"Baby, you should have locked the door if you and….whoever this is were going to get freaky," she laughed and pulled the door shut behind her before stealing one last glance at the hidden couple.

April was hiding her face against his chest and had pulled her hair down to surround the rest of her face. "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god," she mumbled, still hiding.

"Sweetheart, it's ok. You can come out now," he whispered, rubbing soothing circles all over her back. She pulled away from his chest and he had to laugh at her rosy red skin. Her face was on fire.

"Was that really your mother or is this just a horrific nightmare?" was all she asked, looking back at the closed door behind her. Jackson nodded and laughed. She knew it had to be his mom. The best part was that she already knew the woman periodically worked at Seattle Grace.

"Well I guess we might as well end this now then," she said while pulling herself off him and stumbling around nakedly looking for her panties.

"What? Why? She's the one who barged in, she won't hold it against you," Jackson argued. He reached down and pulled her pink thong off the floor under his desk and handed it to her.

"Jackson. She just walked in and saw me naked and on top of you, straddling you and making out with you while you were grabbing my ass," April rambled, hysterically. "Even if she can get past that, I'm not sure that I could."

She finished getting dressed and slowly opened the door to his office and peeked out before jogging down the hallway.

It was the second time in six hours that she left Jackson hanging. It wasn't thirty seconds after April left that his Mom broke into his office again. He was annoyed, but not surprised.

"Jackson Avery. Who in the world was that? How long has that been going on? Has Isaac met her or are you two just fooling around? Does she work here?" Catherine asked him faster than he could comprehend. He watched her incredulously as she pulled a chair up and sat facing his desk. He was still practically naked and the woman was phased.

"Dr. April Taylor. She's a new trauma attending here. I've been seeing her for a while now, since before she started working he-" he tried answering her questions patiently but Catherine interrupted him again.

"Wait. April Taylor as in TaylorCorp?" she gazed at her son, stunned. He hadn't even put that together or asked her.

"Uh, I…I actually have no idea…I doubt it. Mom, I have a meeting to get to." Jackson held the door open for her and shooed her out.

After April got back down to trauma, she sat down at the nurses station to try logging in to do charting. Her password didn't work and a nurse leaned over to help.

"For some reason the password doesn't work if you don't put it in caps," the nurse told her. April tried her password in caps and the chart popped up.

"Thank you so much…" she told the woman, "I've already had an… interesting…first day to say the least. I'm April," she said while she held her hand out towards the Asian nurse. "Bokey," she said in response.

April's personal cell phone started vibrating in her pocket. "Good morning," she greeted into the device.

Bokey looked at her curiously, noticing the rapid change in her expressions. She went from pleasant, to worried and then angry.

"She what? When?" April questioned the person on the other end of the phone. Her face was bright red yet again. "I'll be right there,"

April paged Dr. Hunt to let him know that she was having a personal emergency. Even though it was her first day at her new job she had to leave. Summer's school called. She parked at the curb in front of the school, jumped out and ran in at full speed.

A security guard stopped her in the hallway and told her to walk but she had to find her daughter. When she entered the administration offices she saw a few kids waiting to talk to someone and the secretary. "Summer Taylor?" she asked the secretary.

The woman pointed back to the principal's office and saw her daughter in a seat facing the desk. "What in the hell is going on Summer?" she asked her daughter sternly, scolding her mostly. Summer had never been in trouble before.

The principal stepped in. "Miss Honey caught her smoking in the parking lot." Summer instantly retaliated. "Mom, it was one cigarette." she told her mom annoyingly.

April began apologizing to the principal profusely for her child's behavior and asked if that was all. Summer was sent home for the rest of the day and given three weekends of detention. They argued the entire way back to their house.

"What the hell is your problem mom? It's not like you never did anything stupid when you were my age. I mean you got _pregnant_ and I can't smoke a cigarette?" Summer screamed. Her teenage hormones were on full alert.

"Hey, cut out the cussing and I mean it. You're a lady, act like one," was the first thing she had to say. Her finger was pointing straight at her daughter, getting her attention. She didn't stop there though, "Secondly, you do not get to bring up my pregnancy anymore. That topic had been drilled into the ground. And how long have you been smoking?" April asked curiously, slowly calming down.

"Relax. It was my third cigarette ever," Summer shared with April, picking at her fingernails. It was a habit she picked up when she quit biting her finger nails. It was a little better than biting them at least.

"Will you please cut out the smoking? I know I can't make you, you'll do what you want. But I promise you, you'll regret it. It will ruin your life. You'll spend more money, you'll smell bad, you're health will deteriorate quickly, you'll be at a higher risk for a multitude of diseases. I know it seems cool now, but it's not," April lectured her.

It was Friday night and April was going to have Jackson over for dinner for the first time. Isaac was coming too. She planned to make lemon pepper chicken, Japanese sweet potatoes and steamed broccoli. She had the chicken but went to the street market a few blocks down to get the vegetables. One of her favorite activities over the years was cooking and lately she had been cooking healthier than ever. She got a small box of lemon shortbread cookies for dessert from her favorite bakery that she always ended up at.

When she got home she found that Summer had cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom and picked up the rest of the house.

"Sweetie, thank you. You didn't have to do that," April laughed, but smiled gleamingly at her house. Summer almost never helped with anything around the house.

"I know, I just thought it might make up for my behavior lately and the fact that you had to leave you first day at your new job early. So again, I'm sorry mom." She graveled and allowed her mom to pull her into tight hug.

Summer was thrown off by her mom's crying. "My baby is all grown up, when did this happen?" She asked, sniffling into Summer's shoulder. Summer just rolled her eyes at her emotional wreck of a mother.

Over at the Avery household, Isaac and Jackson were getting ready to leave. "Dad, we're going to be late. It's just dinner. Come on!" Isaac hollered up the stairs. He had been waiting for his dad to get ready for the last twenty minutes. He never took this long. It was easier for him to get ready, since he didn't care and just wore the clothes he had worn to school earlier that day.

"Okay, okay I'm ready. How do I look bud?" Jackson grinned and did a full circle spin, showing his clothing choice to his younger lookalike. Isaac sighed, finding absolutely no humor in his dad's question.

"Wow. I can't believe we're having this conversation. Are you coming or should I go without you?" he asked, anxious to see Summer. Jackson and April had talked about what would happen if they wanted to become more serious, and the future of Summer and Isaac's relationship didn't look good. They figured they might as well see how things played out for the younger couple before bringing it up. They were likely to end it first themselves.

This time Jackson sighed and opened the door to the garage. They hoped in his car and drove down the street to the Taylor's.

It was the first time Jackson had actually been downstairs in her house and had time to look around. She was normally sneaking him up and down the stairs in the dark. It was very modestly decorated but it had a certain contemporary style to it. There were pictures of Summer from a baby to present lining the stair case. It smelled faintly like French toast and he noticed she had a Scentsy warmer. The only reason he knew what it was was because his mom had put one in her house. Something about it smelling too much like a "locker room" in there. The most noticeable knickknack was a silver cross hung on the wall in the living room. It had what he assumed was a bible verse on it, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life". He made a note to ask her about that later, she never mentioned anything about being religious.

"Why hello you," April greeted her new man happily and waved to Isaac. By the time Jackson was done kissing her Isaac and Summer had taken off towards the living room.

"Hey gorgeous," he whispered in her ear. Immediately after he pulled away to watch her skin redden immensely. He absolutely loved how humble she was, especially because she really was the most gorgeous woman he had ever seen. His hands slid up from her hips, slightly underneath her blouse. She practically purred before jumping back slightly, reminding him that their kids were just feet away.

"Jackson, no!" April laughing, pulling him into the kitchen with her.

"Can I help with anything?" he asked, still holding her hand tightly. She kissed him quickly and nodded, pointing to a stack of dishes and napkins. "Actually, if you wanted to set the table that would be wonderful." He nodded and took his job seriously. Probably because of his surgical nature, he meticulously sat eat seat with an ordered fork and knife. She had to laugh at his careful attention to detail.

April peeked into the living room where she expected to see Summer and Isaac showing some kind of affection like they did at the basketball game. Instead she found them sitting at opposite ends of the couch. She knew something had to have happened but had no idea what. Summer seemed fine before dinner, she would even say she seemed happy.

"What's wrong with those two?" April asked, pointing out to the living room where they could see the back of Summer and Isaac.

"I have no idea…he was completely psyched to come over," Jackson told her, feeling bewildered. They came in to sit at the table and you could cut the tension with a knife. After a couple of failed conversation attempts to poke into what was going on with Summer and Isaac, Jackson and April gave up and ate in silence. As soon as Summer put their plates in the sink, she asked to speak to him outside.

"Isaac. I'm really sorry, but I don't think we should see each other anymore. It's not that I don't like you, because I do. But with our parents actually seeing each other….I mean it's kind of weird now, isn't it?" she asked him slowly, playing with her hands and avoiding eye contact with him until she asked him if he thought it was weird too.

He shrugged. "I just really like you Summer, I've liked you for a long time. And with my dad… he never stays in a relationship very long, so I figured we could just wait it out," he mumbled. He seemed heartbroken to say the least.

"Well… if my mom has even the slightest chance of finding someone she's happy with, then I want to be there for her," Summer told him and he nodded. "Sorry Isaac."

Summer gave him one last kiss and went back into the house without him. April asked her where he was and she pointed outside on her way upstairs. April ran out to check on him and talk to him, Jackson stayed back and put his shoes on.

When Jackson was ready to go he found his girlfriend comforting his son and his son crying quietly. She was holding him close and soothing him. It was the sweetest thing he'd ever seen. He was in love with April Taylor."

Besides a couple consultations, a few text messages and a couple good night phone calls, April and Jackson didn't get a chance to speak to each other at all in the days following their 'family' dinner. Jackson talked to April about how heartbroken his son was and how much he felt for him during their date.

"There must be something about Taylor women, because I couldn't imagine losing you. I feel bad for the kid," he sighed and scratched his head. His son had been held up in his room for days, undoubtedly experiencing his first heart break.

April frowned and finished her dinner. When they got home they sat on her front porch swing. It was dark outside but the street lights had the front yard faintly lit. Summer was staying at her friend Sloane's for the night and they knew they had the house to themselves.

She left Jackson on the porch and went inside for a moment. When she came back out she had a bottle of Chardonnay and two wine glasses. She had opened the bottle inside and poured them each a glass when she sat back down.

They could hear the crickets chirping and the infrequent cars passing by, although the silence between them was louder. Jackson was wondering what she was thinking and he couldn't help but wonder if she was about to break-up with him the same way her daughter had with his son just days ago.

He couldn't have been more wrong.

"Jackson, I love you. There, I said it. I know it's early-way too early. And I know you probably don't love me back yet and that's okay, but I had to tell you. I can't ignore the way my heart flutters out of control when I see you or you say my name." April confessed. She let out an exasperated breath after her confession like she had been holding her breath. She was avoiding all eye contact with Jackson for as long as possible. When she finally looked back at him, she saw a huge smile covering his face.

"I love you too," he surprised her, grinning at their confessions. He wrapped his arms tightly around her waist and hoisted her up in to the air. April kissed him like she had wanted to all night and she was unable to stop smiling. Her hands were holding the sides of his face and she was staring intently into his eyes yet planting kisses all over his face uncontrollably.

"Are you sure? You don't have to say it just because I did," she told Jackson, breaking the kiss and studying his face some more. No doubt she was looking for some kind of give to make sure she wasn't forcing him into lying to her.

"April, you don't understand. There isn't one person in this world that I want more than I want you. I finally understand what it's like to look at someone and smile for no reason and I don't want to ever forget. "

* * *

**Is it season 10 yet?**


	6. You too?

"Avery, what the hell is the matter with you? You're too…happy," Karev grimaced, shaking his head at his friends happy attitude. The last time he saw him like this was never.

"I don't know, man. Something amazing happens when you're in love and you don't even give a damn about what day it is anymore." Jackson practically sang while eating his Caesar salad in the cafeteria.

"Oh he knows all about it. Karev's got it bad for his little intern," Cristina teased one of her best friends relentlessly. Alex knew she was right but she needed to learn when to just shut the hell up.

"Shut it, Yang. You've got it bad for Hunt still, too bad he doesn't seem to have to bad for you too anymore." Alex attempted teasing her back. She looked up from her salad and eyed him.

"You know what? Shut up Alex, just shut up. You have no idea about what is going on between Owen and I." She barked and stood up from the table, leaving her full plate of salad sitting.

"Good one man. Real smooth." Jackson laughed at his oblivious friend and shook his head disbelief.

"Whatever. Since when is Cristina Yang sensitive about anything? How was I supposed to know that was a sore subject?" Alex complained and looked back to where Cristina walked away, as if she would come right back.

Jackson laughed. "You should apologize. That was below the belt."

"Yeah, yeah. Don't get your panties in a twist Avery. I'll talk to her." Alex bit.

Jackson happened to glance up and saw April wandering around the cafeteria aimlessly while trying to choose somewhere to sit. "April!" he hollered across the packed room.

She looked up and he waved her over. She looked unsure and he walked over to meet her. "Come sit with us, we don't bit, I promise," he laughed at his own joke.

"I just wasn't sure if you were ready for me to meet your friends yet or not," She told him shyly.

He seemed confused. "April, I love you. I want you to meet all of my friends," he said as he nudged her softly and took a hold of her hand to pull her to his table with him.

"Karev, this is my girlfriend April. She just got a job as a trauma attending here." He introduced and slid his arm around her waist to pull her closer to him.

"Nice to meet you Dr. Karev," April greeted and held her hand out to shake Alex's hand. He reciprocated the gesture, "You too April, you can call me Alex if you want." He smiled flirtingly and lingered a little too long before he let go of her hand.

"Back off, that's not funny." Avery told him possessively. April felt Jacksons fingers slip under the hem of her scrubs and caress her skin.

Karev's pager went off. "Dammit, freakin' interns." He mumbled before he stood up with his tray and dashed away.

Jackson explained Karev a little more to April. "He's a good guy, just comes off as an asshole," he laughed and the mood lightened.

"Have you made any friends yet?" He asked her as he nuzzled his nose into her hair and all but pulled her onto his lap.

"A few. Quite a few nurses but the only attendings I've really talked to are George O'Malley and Izzie Stevens. They seem really nice?" She told him in a voice that ended up sounding like more a question.

"Yeah, they are. Did you know that O'Malley was married to Torres before she was gay?" He asked and she giggled. "Seriously? I know I just met him but I couldn't see those two together," she laughed and ate a few more bites of her sandwich.

"It didn't last long. He actually cheated on her with Stevens," Jackson shrugged while he told her. Even though cheating is wrong, it seemed to have worked out because he was still with Stevens and Torres found Robbins.

April nodded and agreed. He had a point. If her husband had never of cheated on her she would still be in a loveless marriage and never would have fell in love with him.

"Hey, how's Isaac?" She asked in her motherly tone. He shrugged again. "First heartbreak. Summer did a real number on him." Jackson told her. She frowned.

April looked at him curiously, "I'm really sorry. Have you talked to him?"

Jackson nodded quickly. "A few times. He just lays there and doesn't say much. Plays video games all the time. My Mom wants me to send him out to Boston to stay with her for a while. She seems to think it would be nice for him to experience Boston and Mass Gen and the rest of our family."

"What do you think about that?" April asked while she picked a cucumber off his plate.

He thought seriously before answering. "I'm starting to think that it doesn't sound like too bad of an idea. At least for the Summer."

April agreed. "The change of scenery might help him adjust. That's a tough age and it has to be even harder without a Mother in his life. I know there's a lot of times I wish that for Summer's sake Matthew had stayed a little closer. You know?"

Jackson agreed. They both knew how hard it was being a single parent. The good part was that neither of their kids seemed to have a problem with their actual relationship.

"I think I'll talk to him about it later tonight. It's sounding like a better and better idea. I'll have to see what he thinks about it," Jackson thought out loud, still mulling it over in his head too.

* * *

The rest of their day at work went by smoothly. Jackson actually got to perform a couple of procedures and the pit was busy.

"April, do you mind giving me a consultation for bed 6?" George asked her kindly while he finished triaging a group of girls who just got brought in from a car accident on the I-5.

"No problem," She said while she awkwardly pulled the chart out from underneath the stack he was holding and quickly read it over. Jason Cook. Thirty years old, attempted suicide. Tried to shoot himself in the head but somehow blew off his arm. She exhaled loudly before walking into his room.

"Hi Jason, I'm Dr. Kepner. How are you feeling?" She asked him calmly. He rolled his eyes. "How do you think I'm feeling? I tried to kill myself and I can't even do that right." He seethed and tried to roll over in the bed to no avail. "Get out."

"Jason, I'm your doctor. I just want to help you." She tried promising and he offered no response. She examined him as much as she could before leaving his room to find George.

"What the hell?" She asked him, slamming the man's chart down on the nurses station in front of him. "Well he wouldn't talk to me at all, so I was hoping you could get him to talk to you." He told her guiltily and slid the chart back her way.

"How would I ever do that?" She asked and he laughed. "You're beautiful…charm him. Please?" George begged. They needed the man to let them examine him.

She rolled her eyes and told a nurse to admit him. It was time for her to go and she'd try her luck again tomorrow once he had time to calm down.

Her cell phone buzzed just as she got to the locker room to change into her street clothes. "Stuck upstairs for a while. I'll call you when I leave. I love you." A text from Jackson.

She texted him back quickly. "Okay. I love you too :) " She was going home a bit early since she had a couple patients to come in early for tomorrow.

* * *

She walked in the door and saw a strange pair of shoes at the door. "Summer?" She asked anxiously, wondering who was in her house. She didn't hear an answer so she quickly grabbed her pepper spray off of her key chain and slowly walked upstairs. Her room and the guest bedroom were clear and so was the bathroom. The only place she didn't check was Summer's room. The door was shut so once she gained enough courage she quickly flung the door open and saw her daughter laying on top of a strange guy. She was in just her bra and jeans and the guy had no shirt on.

"Mom, oh my God! Get out! Get out!" Summer yelled as she flung to her feet to find her shirt. The guy grabbed his shirt and darted down the stairs and they heard the front door click shut not long after.

"What the hell Summer? Who was that?" April screamed and tossed the pepper spray onto her bed. She was furious. "You do NOT get to have strange boys in my house! Do you hear me?" She yelled as a statement rather than question. It took her the next fifteen minutes to even cool down.

Summer spoke next. "I'm sorry Mom. I messed up again."

"Hey, look at me," April asked. Summer nervously glanced over at her mom. "It's okay to make mistakes and do stupid things. I love that you can be so wild and free spirited. You've heard stories of how I grew up. It was basically a cold household where we were taught to ignore our feelings and our impulses. Kissing and sex were for marriage and marriage only. I don't want that for you Summer. Don't get me wrong, obviously I don't want you just out there having random…random sex. But I don't want you to think that if you _eventually _have sex with your boyfriend that God won't love you, because He will. I want to teach you that God will love you and I want you to use that to make good decisions. Do what is right for you. Make good, healthy, adult decisions." April lectured her baby, hoping she would at least take to some of her advice.

"Mom, I promise you, Jake and I weren't having sex. I'm not ready to have sex. I want my virginity to go to the man I love, and I don't love Jake, at least not yet," she shared. Her mother seemed content with that, and it was the truth.

"I believe you. But there will be no more boys coming into this house when I'm not home. Do you understand me? That is a definite no-no," April laughed and Summer agreed. She probably had taken it a little too far then. Even Jake had admitted to it being a bad idea, but he was powerless to stop her.

"Can you make me one more promise?" April asked nervously. They had never talked about protection or sex before, at least it was going well so far.

"If you even have any thought of having sex, that you will be safe. You can either ask me and I will take you to the doctors first or you can ask any one of your aunts. Ask anyone you feel comfortable with. If you're ever going to have sex, you need to be on birth control to prevent pregnancy and use condoms to protect against STDs." She lectured, the doctor in her was coming out more and more. This was the part where Summer began to roll her eyes. She knew about the pill and the birds and the bees for God's sake.

"Yes Mom, I promise." Summer agreed. April breathed a sigh of relief. Her little girl was grown up and she didn't have any idea when it happened.

She texted Jackson and asked him to come over.

* * *

**Thursday night with no Grey's. Sad times.**


	7. San Diego

**Sorry I took so long!**

* * *

Jackson slipped in April's back door. By now he was used to doing it, especially because Summer was home all the time now that she was constantly grounded. Once he made it up to her bedroom he found April sitting on her bed, crying.

"Hey, hey…what's wrong?" He asked her patiently and more than a little bit confused. He'd never her seen her this upset before and seeing her cry was almost unbearable. Jackson sat on her bed next to her and gently rubbed her back. She leaned into his chest and grabbed his shirt, unintentionally using it to wipe the tears away from her eyes.

"Summer is all grown up. But she's still my baby and I still have to look out for her and she doesn't listen to me anymore and I don't know what to do.' She huffed and choked on a bubble of air in her throat from crying.

Jackson listened some more and let her cry it all out. He knew what she was going through; Isaac was at the same age. "I know sweetheart, I know. But you're still her mother and no matter how old she gets you're still allowed to care for her and to worry about her. I think deep down she knows that you only want the best for her." Jackson told her everything he had to try and tell himself. He was going through the exact same things with Isaac and had even decided to let him spend the summer in Boston with his family.

"You're sweet," she smiled faintly and reached over to lay her hand on his cheek. She leaned in and kissed him softly. When she felt him gently wipe the tears off her cheeks she knew that she had found her prince. She could feel the mascara stains all over her face and hoped she didn't look completely awful.

"Isaac is going to Boston for the summer. He's going to stay with my mom and spend some time at Mass Gen too. I think it might be good for him." Jackson sighed. It was his way of telling her that was at a stale mate with Isaac, just like she was with Summer.

She looked at him confusedly. "And he's ok with that?"

Jackson nodded. "He's thrilled. He's been itching to get out of Seattle since…well since Summer…" Jackson chuckled awkwardly. "Plus, what teenage kid wouldn't want to get out of their house for the summer and see a different city?"

April shrugged. Maybe he had something there. "Besides, he assumes that because he'll be at my mom's that she'll always be gone and he'll have no supervision. What he doesn't know is that she'll stick someone on him to babysit." Jackson laughed. April giggled. At least he covered all his bases first.

"I've been pondering the idea of suggesting Summer go visit Matthew for the Summer. She hasn't spent too much time with him since the divorce. I'm not sure how she'll react to it though," April sighed and shrugged again. She was at a loss. "I don't think she's forgiven him since she found out that he cheated on me."

Jackson actively listened as she told him the full story of how Summer had overheard her father having a very private conversation when he didn't know she was home. April told Jackson about her finding out that April already knew and didn't do anything about it yet, just let it keep happening.

"And for a while she was mad at me too." April told him, the same tears from earlier reappeared in her eyes. When Jackson thought about it, he could understand Summer's frustration. Most likely she was mad that her mother was putting up with that kind of behavior. At least that's how he felt when the same thing happened to him with his parents, though he figured that was a conversation for another day.

"How about you get ready for bed and I'll make you a cup of tea? Calm you down?" He asked and leaned over, giving her a playful kiss on the tip of her nose.

"That sounds lovely, but Summer's here. Remember?" She giggled and he shrugged nonchalantly. "Isn't she asleep by now?"

April nodded. "Yeah, she always falls asleep early. If that girl doesn't get like ten hours of sleep, she can't function."

Jackson chuckled. "I'm guessing that she didn't get that from you?" He teased her while he took his shirt and pants off, spinning around in just his tight boxer briefs. April whistled and he shook his head in silent laughter while sneaking out of her bedroom and down to the kitchen to find the tea. He got the water in the microwave in no time and found the tea packets just where he figured April would keep them. In a cute little jar on the counter. She was so predictable yet she always managed to stun him when it counted.

Next, he opened the box of cupcakes on the counter and pulled two out. They were from his favorite bakery and his mouth was watering just looking at them. He pulled two out…a chocolate and red velvet. The first one he practically shoved in his mouth. "So good." Jackson moaned to himself and tossed the wrapper in the garbage. He put the second one on a plate for April.

"Those cupcakes are for my friend Sarah, tomorrow's her birthday." Summer told him out of nowhere. He spun around and saw her sitting quietly on the couch in the dark living room.

Jackson set his hand over his chest, hoping to calm his heart. Good thing he was so in shape or she might be calling an ambulance right about now.

"Summer you scared the crap out of me. What are you doing in the dark? We thought you were sleeping," he sighed, finally breathing a little bit.

"I was, but I couldn't sleep so I came downstairs to get something to drink. Then my phone went off so I sat here to text them back and then I heard you come down." She rambled, exactly like April does.

"Nice underwear by the way," she deadpanned and he jumped, putting a fry pan in front of his crotch like it would actually cover something. He completely forgot he was virtually naked.

"Uh… I'm really sorry. I uh…" he told her, trying desperately to think of an excuse or a reason why he was practically naked and in her house so late at night.

"Dr. Avery, don't. You really don't have to. I'm not naïve, I know that you and my mom are together. I'm happy for her. Really. Plus, I've heard you sneaking in since the beginning." She told him, going immediately back to her cell phone after it lit up again.

He gazed at her in confusion. He was used to the teenager thing but not the teenage girl. It shocked him that he literally had no idea what to say to her after that. He had no way of knowing if she was genuinely okay with the situation or was actually mad or upset. "Ok. Well, you can call me Jackson if you want. You don't have to call me Dr. Avery," he laughed and started to make his way back to the stairs. A part of him hoped that if he easily let it go then she would too.

Jackson handed April her hot cup of tea and kept the cupcake plate himself. He awkwardly settled into bed and kissed her cheek.

"So Summer just caught me downstairs." He said while unwrapping the cupcake slowly. April nearly choked on her tea. "What?"

"Yeah, she was sitting in the living room and I didn't see her. She didn't seem to be upset or anything. It was just a little awkward. She said she's not stupid and has heard me sneaking in since we started dating." Jackson relayed and April laughed. Something else she was going to have to talk to Summer about. Sending her down to San Diego seemed like a better and better idea.

She dropped the subject and so did Jackson. She watched him take a huge bite of the red velvet cupcake before opening her mouth wide. He leaned in with the cupcake to give her a bite. Instead, he surprised her by smashing the remainder of it in her face and laughing. He couldn't hold it together after seeing her shocked and red and white face.

He pushed her down on her back and started kissing her face. Well, not really kissing her face so much as eating cupcake off her face.

"Jackson!" she screeched and used a finger to take a chunk of cupcake off her face and rub it on his. Instead of retaliating, he pulled her tank top off and used it to wipe the rest of the cupcake off her face. When he finally realized that she was bare underneath it, he could barely contain himself.

April moaned loudly when she realized it was him that was stiffly poking her thigh and she reached down to feel him. He was stiff in her hand and she started slowly pumping it up and down while he closed his eyes and groaned.

She felt him stand up and pull her with him. In record time he pulled his boxers down and she dropped her green panties to the floor.

He almost roughly pushed her down chest first onto her bed and entered her from behind. She whimpered his name, "Jackson, uh…oh my God!"

He couldn't get over how good she felt in this position. They'd never tried it before and he could tell he was hitting all the right spots because she was incapable of being quiet. He leaned over to hold her while he thrusted into her and used one hand to cover her mouth and another to slightly pull her hair.

"Is everything ok?" he asked her huskily from behind. She turned her head around and mumbled "Yes, I'm great. Just don't stop."

Instead of telling her he wouldn't, he took that opportunity to tear into her even harder until they came together. He slowly pulled out of her and nearly passed out on top of her before they scooted up in her bed to go to sleep.

The next morning Jackson actually came downstairs for breakfast. April coerced him into thinking that if they all have the conversation together it might go better. Plus, she got the feeling that Summer really did think Jackson was a good guy, or at least good for her. If she didn't then there's no way Summer would have kept it to herself for such a long time.

Summer joined them in the kitchen and sat down warily in the breakfast nook. April started the conversation easily.

"Jackson told me you two talked last night. Is everything ok?" she asked her honestly. She was hoping that since Summer repeatedly told her she needed to be treated like an adult that they could all talk like adults.

"Everything's fine, mom. I was thinking though. And this isn't related to what just happened or anything. But would it be okay if I went down to visit dad this summer? I figure I should go meet my new family." Summer laughed wickedly and April did the same. She eyed Jackson who shrugged and smiled, and then she said sure.

"If that's what you really want sweetheart, of course you can." She told her and hugged her sincerely. When Summer couldn't see him Jackson tossed his head back and forth in laughter. Nothing like letting her think she got away with exactly what she wanted.

Summer got up and poured herself a cup of coffee. She drank it without adding any cream or any sugar and he was stunned. He looked at April who hadn't even noticed. Isaac hated the stuff. If he did drink it is was more like he was drinking coffee with his sugar than sugar with his coffee.

After that night and then morning in the kitchen, Jackson all but officially moved into the Kepner-Taylor household. With Isaac gone and Summer leaving for California, they couldn't have been more excited to be with each other full time.

The next morning they all woke up and showered early. Jackson loaded his SUV with all of their suitcases. April checked her folder a couple more times to make sure she had everything they needed. April had asked Jackson to drive down to San Diego with them and they planned a mini-vacation while they were down there. They were going to the zoo in San Diego and then stopping for a few nights in San Francisco on the way back up north.

The ride to San Diego went smoothly. They drive was just about twenty hours and they actually drove straight through. The whole reasoning behind that was because they couldn't decide what to do about a hotel room if they stopped. Did they get Summer her own room? Did they put Summer in with April and Jackson have his own room? So to make things easier Jackson suggested they just keep switching and driving through. Summer even took a couple hours of driving off their hands and it went a lot more smoothly than they originally thought it would.

When they got to Matthew's house it was just after eight in the morning. There was an averaged sized blonde woman on her knees in the yard, pulling weeds from the planters along the side of the house. Her blonde hair was long and she had a bandana wrapped around her head to hold it back.

"There's step mommy now," Summer groaned. The lady had always been perfectly nice to her, she just never liked or understood the idea of her.

When they pulled into the driveway the woman noticed their presence and turned around to greet them. She walked up to the car with a genuine smile spread across her face.

"Summer!" She waved happily before noticing the familiar man driving the black SUV.

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**Drop me a note after reading :)**


	8. Wait, I know you

**Some of you knew what was going to happen! I didn't want to make it too predictable but I hope you're not disappointed!**

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"Jackson?" the woman standing in front of their SUV asked. Her smile quickly faded and she was looking more and more confused by the second. April was looking from the step monster to Jackson and back to her again repeatedly. Jackson wasn't talking and the woman still looked just as confused.

"What is going on?" Summer asked her mom from the back seat. She didn't understand what was going on any more than anyone else who was present.

April immediately turned around and shushed her from the front seat. "Summer shh-,"

"How does Jackson know Stacy?" Summer asked her mom, even though she knew her mom was busy trying to process what was going on.

Jackson coughed uncomfortably. "Stacy is Isaac's mother." He got out of the SUV silently and unloaded Summer's bags onto the driveway. Summer didn't know what to say, April was still in shock and Stacy was crying. Jackson was unreadable. He was ignoring the entire situation, likely trying to process it. He hadn't acknowledged Stacy yet or even looked at April.

Suddenly he felt like he was stuck in a time warp. Stacy looked exactly like she did when they were sixteen and it felt like the day she left all over again. He wasn't sad for himself, he knew that he never even loved her. It was an all-new kind of sad. One where you're hurting because your child is hurting. or at least you know they will be.

"Are you going to be okay here? We'll be in San Francisco for the night so call us if you need anything at all." He told her, looking over at April who was still a sitting statue in the passenger's seat. Summer nodded and semi-awkwardly hugged Jackson goodbye. She walked around the car and hugged her mom goodbye too.

April waved. "Bye sweetie." Jackson was back in front of the driver's seat and backing out of the driveway before Stacy even had the chance to talk to him.

Jackson and April were silently driving towards their hotel to check in. The radio was off and the windows were down and the silence clouded the air. Finally Jackson spoke up. "The least she could have done was call Isaac." April noticed how tightly he was clenching the steering wheel and it worried her. His knuckles were white and she had never seen him so livid.

"I know. I completely agree." April told him. She haphazardly slid her hand underneath his and her further hand on top of his and turned to face him. "That must have been really hard for you."

Jackson nodded. "It just infuriates me. I've never gotten the chance to tell her how her selfish decisions have impacted our son… I mean… It's given him a complex. He has this fear of abandonment. Which is why I think the thing with Summer hurt him so badly. The one woman who was supposed to love him unconditionally threw him out like yesterday's trash."

April watched his lips quiver uncontrollably before he broke down. She couldn't even imagine feeling like this. At least her situation with Matthew had been resolved. Closure was always seemed overrated to her, but this was making her realize what it feels like to have none.

He pulled over into a car pool parking lot and unintentionally sobbed. He was furious…absolutely radiating anger. His cheeks were warm with wet tears and he couldn't decide if he wanted to scream at her or ask her how she could not love their son first.

"Some people just are not born with the mothering gene Jackson. They're good people, but you can tell that they're not born to be mothers. We see it at the hospital all the time. Remember Alex's patient who checked out six hours after giving birth and left the baby at the hospital? Maybe Stacy knew that you were capable of being the parent she wasn't at the time." April told him quietly while gently soothing him. She was trying to tell him anything, anything that she could to lull him into acceptance of it.

He didn't have to acknowledge her to know that she was heard. She crawled over the center console and onto his side of the car and straddled him. It wasn't in a sexual way, it was pure love. She wrapped her small arms around his broad shoulders and pulled him into her, to hold him. Her rested his head in her cleavage and wrapped his arms around her.

In the back of his mind he knew this was what happened. That was the worst part. There was a small part of him that knew that one day he would be explaining this exact situation to Isaac. How she didn't want him but had no problem making a new family with someone else. How do you even begin to explain that to your child?

She used her hands to gently rub the back of his head the way she knew she liked. "I will say that it doesn't make me feel great about leaving Summer there," April said more to herself than to him. She knew Matthew was there and Summer was old enough to call her if she wanted to come home. Maybe Stacy had changed since Jackson knew her. They didn't seem to have any major problems so far.

April pondered putting her two cents into the situation. Eventually she decided that if she didn't now, then there wouldn't really be another time to. "Do you want to stick around to talk to her tomorrow? Or today even? I don't mind at all. Maybe we should all talk."

Jackson immediately shook his head. He wanted nothing to do with the woman and Isaac got this far without her, he could go longer. April accepted his decision and dropped it though she knew she would be talking to Matthew later to figure out more about the woman whether Jackson wanted her to or not.

They spent the rest of the day exploring San Diego. The zoo was everything April thought it would be. She'd never seen a zoo with such a variety of animals. They went to the beach and swam for a short while and sunbathed for a bit after that. They had a couple beaches in Seattle but they were nothing like the warm water in San Diego. Their pleasant evening was interrupted by April's phone ringing. She jumped for her purse, thinking it could be Summer wanting to come home.

"Matthew is Summer okay?" April asked frantically when she saw who was calling her. They were on friendly terms but they didn't speak often. Her mind was bursting with worst case scenarios.

Jackson watched her take in whatever he was saying and it didn't seem to be urgent because he heard her respond with a few "oh ok's" and "I agree". She finished the conversation by agreeing to meet them for dinner in an hour on the pier.

He eyed her with a cross look on his face. She'd never been on the receiving end of his wrath but figured if there was any time for it then it was now.

She chose her next words carefully before she spoke them. "Jackson, you know you have to talk to her. This needs to be talked about. Holding it in like that isn't healthy for you or for Isaac."

"April, this isn't about you. I have nothing to say to that woman." He barked and shot her a cold glare.

She fidgeted with her hands uncomfortably. It was understandable that she had nothing to say to her, but it was about her since Summer was living with Matthew and her over the summer.

Jackson turned around and stormed up to their hotel room alone, leaving her upset and alone on the beach.

Once April made her way upstairs into their room, she took another minute to collect her thoughts. The last thing she wanted to do was make things worse between her and Jackson. She knew he needed to at least attempt to resolve things with Stacy. If she was being completely honest with herself then she knew she couldn't force it either.

The shower was running in the bathroom and April decided to join him. She took off her bathing suit cover and swim suit and slowly opened the door.

"Can I joi-" she tried to ask Jackson but was cut off when he pulled her inside with him. He made room for her under the shower head and let the hot water hit her.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you," he whispered in her ear and wrapped his arms tightly around her tiny waist. She shrugged. "I know you're not upset with me."

He frowned. "You're the last person I should be yelling at right now. Let me make it up to you?"

She grinned while he pushed her back up against the tile wall behind her. His hands left her waist and held onto the back of her thighs. She got the hint and jumped up to wrap her legs around his waist. Her arms linked tightly behind his shoulders and she gasped for air when he pushed into her.

With every thrust she slid up and down the wet tile wall that he had her pushed against. Jackson was kissing her softly first on her lips and then down her jaw and long neck. He buried his face in the crook of her neck while he pushed her over the edge. She was so tight around him that he always seemed to be trying to hold out so she could get off first.

"Fuck, April!" he groaned huskily and took her nipple in his mouth while he used his hand to knead the other one. She gasped for air and let out a squeak when his other hand squeezed her ass. She tightened instantly around him and he came inside her near simultaneously.

Jackson finished washing up and left April to finish her shower. He had to get ready for their dinner in a few minutes.

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**How do you think the next chapter goes?**


	9. Awkward

**Thank you for sticking with this story! I really would love opinions on where I should take this story next or where you think it might go! I have some ideas but I definitely look forward to your insight. Hearing what you think about each chapter makes my day too! Thank you again for being such awesome readers!**

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April listened to Jackson nervously tap his fingers over the table while they waited for Matthew and Stacy. He was using his pointer finger and thumb on his other hand to nervously pinch the bridge of his nose. It was a nervous habit that she knew he had but almost never saw him actually doing it. She was sitting next to him, where Matthew and Stacy were set up to sit across. She tried to calm him by rubbing her hand soothingly over his thigh, but he grabbed a hold of her hand instead. He held her petite hand between both of his underneath the table.

She leaned towards him, close to his ear. "I love you."

He sighed anxiously and she kissed him quickly on his cheek. April had been angry at Matthew so many times before in the past, livid even. But it was different than Jackson's situation because Matthew was always there for Summer. It didn't matter how bad of a husband he was to her. Stacy deserted Isaac when he was a baby. Not only was it infuriating to Jackson, but it had to have given Isaac some sort of complex. She did a psychiatry round in med school and knew how it worked. It actually explained a lot about Isaac's introverted personality and shyness…especially around women.

Jackson turned towards April. "Do you think they're ditching us?"

April shrugged. She supposed that if she were Stacy she might ditch this meeting. Uncomfortable was the least she could say to describe their pending meeting.

The waiter came to take their drink orders while they waited. April planned to be the designated driver because she knew Jackson would be overdoing it but decided a taxi was probably a better idea since she needed a drink to take the edge off too.

"Gin and Tonic," April ordered with a forced smile. Jackson ordered after her. "I'll have a scotch on the rocks please." The waiter nodded and scurried off to the bar.

Before he could come back with their drinks, their guests had arrived. Jackson and April stood up awkwardly from their seats to greet them. The hugs were awkward and so were the handshakes. April started the introductions to try and ease the awkwardness but ended up making it worse.

"Matthew this is Jackson, Jackson this is uh…this-this is Matthew. My ex-husband." Matthew laughed and awkwardly held his hand out to shake with him. Jackson nodded. "Nice to meet you man."

"And you must be Stacy…uh…you two already know each other," she rambled. Jackson looked down at her and she kept going. "Or not…not really. Uh, I'm April." She laughed nervously. She wiped the sweat off of her forehead with the back of her hand and quickly sat down. The others were still standing and she watched them finally sit down and join her.

The waiter came over with their drinks and could sense the tension. "Can I get you two something to drink?"

Stacy smiled. "Yes, thank you. I'll have a glass of Chardonnay," and Matthew followed her, " Merlot." The waiter was on his way again, leaving the room just as stuffy as he found it.

April tried again to make things less awkward. "So it's been awhile, huh?" She laughed and Jackson looked at her again. She could tell he was in a mood, the one where he got irritable and nearly rude. She'd seen it when he argued with his grandfather before. He was condescending and sarcastic. "I'll say. What's it been? Fifteen, sixteen years?"

Stacy rolled her eyes. "Jackson, don't."

Matthew interrupted the conversation. "Thanks for letting Summer come down." He was looking mainly at April but glanced at Jackson too. Summer seemed to really like Jackson so Matthew had decided not to give him a hard time. Stacy had also told him that he was raising their son alone, even though she hadn't talked to him in a decade and a half. That at least deserved a bit of respect. Besides, he was the one that left April. It was hardly fair to give her new boyfriend a hard time.

She nodded. "Of course. You're still her father." Jackson commented harshly. "Though had she known what kind of person your wife was she might not have wanted to come."

He had already had enough of Jackson's bad attitude. "Excuse me?"

Jackson looked up from the table. "You heard me. You're married to a cold woman. One who has no interest in her own son. Never has. Not much of the motherly type if you ask me."

April looked at Jackson and whispered his name, as if to say 'knock it off'. He didn't though. "But you must already know that…since Summer tells me you two have kids together now and everything. I feel bad for them. They might actually be better off if she leaves and they're stuck with you."

Matthew took his comment just the way it was intended to be taken because he stood up angrily. "Well, I've had enough. Are you ready to go Stacy?" He reached behind him to pull his wallet out of his back pocket and dropped a twenty on the table for their drinks they hadn't even received yet. She shook her head. "Matthew, calm down. I understand why he's upset with me."

While they were arguing over whether to leave or not April leaned back over to Jackson. "Behave. You're coming out as the bad guy by acting so poorly." He nodded and sighed like he understood what she was saying. She was his better half, his voice of reason. Even when he didn't like what she had to say, he was man enough to admit she was usually right.

The other two sat back down and they all stared at each other. "So tell me about him."

Jackson decided to listen to April and just go along with it. If for nothing else than to humor her. Besides, he never pass up an opportunity to gloat about his son.

"He's on the basketball team. He's really freakin' awesome, probably because he's 6'6 and lean. A hell of a dunker. He's smart, get's all A's and I don't think he even has to try. Loves to read and we go out to concerts all the time." April noticed that Jackson was beaming just talking about his son. It made her heart race.

"Isaac is the sweetest boy. He has such a big heart. He would do anything for anyone, even a complete stranger," April looked over at Jackson while she was saying this. "You couldn't ask for a better kid."

Jackson smiled at his girlfriend's admission. He knew all of those things about Isaac were true but hearing them from someone else felt reassuring. Hearing them from April felt the best, because he valued her opinion more than anyone else's.

Stacy grinned. "Do you have a picture?" She didn't mention it but she had spent hours trying to find his Facebook and Twitter and basically any other social media profile he might have to find a glance of him but it was harder than she thought.

He pulled out his cell phone. Not only did he have pictures but he had a couple videos of him making game winning dunks. She watched all of them, while April, Jackson and Matthew observed her reaction towards them. She looked like a daunting mother.

"Does he ask about me?" She questioned nervously, her eyes were suddenly filled with tears. Matthew scooted closer to comfort her. She sniffled and used her napkin to wipe some of her tears away.

Jackson coughed. He was still annoyed but trying really hard not to show it. "He used to." There really wasn't much more to say than that. It was the truth, at least as far as he knew.

The four continued to talk about their new lives and their old lives. Jackson listened to stories Matthew and April told about Summer growing up and how much she's matured. He told Stacy a few more about Isaac. Matthew and Stacy told April and Jackson about their children together. Jackson wondered what was different about their kids that made her want to stay, as opposed to Isaac but he didn't ask her. There was still a lot of tension, but it was tolerable for the moment.

April interrupted the conversation. "Matthew, come with me to the bar to get another round of drinks?" Jackson knew what she was doing, trying to give him and Stacy a few minutes of privacy to talk. Matthew must have got the hint too because he joined her.

There was another awkward silence between the two. They had talked about their past and about Isaac but it still felt like an elephant in the room. There was nothing about their past that could be fixed during a dinner date.

Stacy finally coughed up what she had wanted to know. "Do you think he would want to see me?"

Jackson looked at her, appalled. "No. Not going to happen. If he asks about you, I know where to tell him you are. But he has finally accepted the fact that you left him. I'm not going to let you hurt him again." He was whispering, but it was harsher than he intended it to be. He was putting his foot down.

Her eyes swelled again. He stared at her. For the first time he saw a woman crying and didn't feel the need to comfort her. She sniffled and mumbled more to herself than to him, "But I'm his mother."

Jackson shook his head. "You threw that idea away a long time ago." He couldn't help but laugh at the convenience and the looseness of the term 'mother'.

April and Matthew returned with another round of drinks. April was already a bit more than buzzed but Jackson was someone fine. Their food arrived and they ate in silence.

Stacy spoke up first. "Where do we go from here?"

The table was eerily quiet until Jackson answered her. "Like I said, if Isaac asks about you, I'll give him your number. But other than that, please stay away from him. He's a good kid who doesn't deserve this. He doesn't need a mother who loves him when it's convenient."

Stacy finally lost it. "Dammit, Jackson! You're the one who wanted to keep him, not me. I told you I didn't know how to be a mother and I wasn't ready for a child. I knew I had nothing to offer him at the time! I needed to go to college and learn who I was before having a child. I'm trying to be there for him now, because I can be."

April stood up. "I think we're done here." She had kept her cool during the dinner more than she thought she'd be able to. Hearing Stacy openly tell Jackson that she didn't want him was enough for her. She went into Mom mode and felt a fierce need to protect Isaac. She didn't want him to see someone who didn't deserve to know him. She was almost feeling a tad territorial. She knew at least she appreciated Isaac for who he was both when it was convenient and when it wasn't.

Jackson stood and said one final thing before they left. "You think I was ready for a child? Not at all Stacy! We made him. If you don't feel some sort of need to protect your own children, planned or not, then I can't help you." He started to walk away but turned around again. "And you don't think I had plans? I still managed to go to med school and become a surgeon for God's sake. So if that's your excuse, then we have nothing left to talk about." He followed April out of the restaurant in a hurry. They left the tab for the Taylor's and called a cab from outside the restaurant.

She looked up at Jackson and wrapped her arms around his waist. "I'm sorry I made you go through that."

He pulled her into him and held her close, leaning down to kiss her. "You were just trying to help. I'm not angry at you."

She nodded and tucked her head into his chest. "I know you told her to forget about Isaac finding out, but are you actually going to tell him?"

He shook his head no almost immediately. "I don't think so. She is not a part of our lives anymore." April agreed. She hadn't told him yet but she already considered Isaac her own. She only realized it recently, but she felt this maternal need to protect him. She worried about him and she wanted to hug him every time he looked sad. Not to mention kick anyone's ass who made him feel that way.

Jackson thought about how he knew he was okay with no letting Stacy into Isaac's life because he had April. Isaac mentioned more than once how much he liked April and he had actually caught them bonding. It hadn't been said out loud yet but April was Isaac's mother. She was the mother of his future children too.

They made it back to the hotel and quietly changed into their pajamas. They shared the bathroom to get ready for bed. The room was silent as they brushed their teeth and washed their face. They took out their contacts and April applied her moisturize like she did during her before bed ritual.

She took his hand on the way to their bed and laid down first. She pulled him down with her and he tucked himself into her side. He pulled himself up to kiss her goodnight. His soft kisses trailed down her neck and chest. They stopped in her cleavage. She held him close and he fell asleep in seconds with his face implanted across her cleavage. She ran her hands across his shoulders and down his lean back soothingly. It was the first time she held Jackson, instead of the other way around.

She knew the subject of Stacy was far from tabled but it was definitely overdone for the night so she dropped it. Unlike him, she was too stressed out over it all to fall asleep though. She knew he was just mentally exhausted. It was just after ten pm, and she found an old episode of Friends on TBS. It was the one where no one was ready to go to Ross's dinosaur thing and Joey put on all of Chandler's clothes. She fell asleep before it was over but it put her in a better mood.

Jackson was more than a little frisky the next morning when he woke up. It was the first time that she had woken up to someone practically going down on her. He had managed to pull her pajama shorts off before she woke up and he was between her legs placing gentle kisses on the inside of her thighs. She opened her eyes and grinned at the sight in front of her.

"Good morning," she moaned. Her hands found the back of Jackson's head. He scooted up closer to her and gave her a long kiss. It left her out of breath and nearly dizzy. He chuckled when she giggled his name.

Instead of responding, he dipped back down her body to remove her black panties. She was wearing a thong that was lacy and black in the front and red in the back. It was quite possibly the sexiest thing he had ever seen.

Once he had her naked from the waist down her placed a simple kiss over her and groaned huskily when he felt how ready for him she was. Instead of giving her exactly what he knew she was waiting for, he blew on her clit enough to make her shake. The sensation of him blowing and barely pressing his lips against her made her shutter and she wrapped her legs around him.

Jackson pushed two of his fingers inside of her and hardened when she tightly gripped onto them and arched her back. Her breathing as heavier and he wanted to spread her legs wide and thrust into her as soon as possible. He knew foreplay was important though, especially because he thoroughly enjoyed giving her two orgasms before breakfast. The grip she had on him was enough to make him lose it.

He used his fingers to stroke the inside of her and make her gasp and tighten around them. When she started shaking he let her finish before crawling back up her body. Instead of pushing into her like he wanted to she flipped him over and scooted back down his body.

"My turn." She whispered and placed sloppy kisses down his chiseled chest. April loved taking control, something that continued to surprise Jackson. She spent a lot of time on the 'v' leading down towards his groin and he chuckled at her enthusiasm. She was definitely a fan of his body and he liked it that way. At least it was mutual.

She took him in her mouth gently at first but then pushed as much of him down her throat as she could. He was blessed in that area and there was still a good portion of him she couldn't fit in her mouth. Instead, she used her hand to pump him and hold him still while she licked from the base up to his tip. He tangled his hands in her thick and now messy red hair and closed his eyes. It took almost every ounce of him to hold on until she was nearly done.

Before he could warn her, he shot into her mouth and he watched her lick him up before scooting back up to him. "Good morning, Baby." He finally responded. She could tell he was in a much better mood than last night, especially now.

"I'm going to take a hot shower," April decided and pulled herself out of bed. She was completely naked. Jackson rarely got the chance to see her that way, since she had body issues. He never understood why though, she had the hottest body he'd ever seen and she barely seemed to try.

He watched her walk away and she stopped at the doorway to the bathroom. "Jackson, are you coming?" She grinned and waiting while he jumped out of bed eagerly and followed her into the hot shower.

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**Please leave me a review about this story and I'll post the next chapter as soon as I can!**


	10. Are you serious?

**As usual, I feel awful about how long I've waited to update this story. Working more than 40 hours a week and finals will do that to you I guess. I hope you enjoy! Please let me know what you thought about this chapter!**

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**One year later**

April sighed. "Summer are you don't want to move back home? You can go to UW like I did and go into Medicine. They have an excellent program. Or go into anything you want, I don't care. I just want you to go to college. You need an education. I can't believe your Father isn't backing me up on this."

She didn't get to finish her rant because Summer interrupted her again. "Mom. I'm just taking a sabbatical from school. I don't know what I want right now so I don't want to waste my time or money on college. I'm going to stay down here in San Diego and work for a year while I think about everything. Besides, I've made a lot of friends here over the past year and I don't want to leave them. Or Mike. I can't go back to Washington while Mike is down here. He'll hate me. And I'll miss him." Summer laughed and April couldn't believe what she was hearing. She worked so hard to make sure that Summer could get an excellent education like she did.

"Summer, what about your acceptances to UW, Berkeley, UCLA? You're just going to throw those away?" She asked her only daughter. It wasn't like her to be this overbearing but it was her daughter's future they were talking about after all. If not now, then when? She had put her through a prep school and tutoring, test prep, music lessons...every possible area in order for her to get accepted into the best colleges. And now she wasn't going.

Summer groaned. "Mom. I told you. I can put it off for a year and start next fall instead. People do that. It will be okay."

April thought about it for a minute while listening to her daughter throw away her future. She glanced over at her fiancé who was flipping through the channels on the tv next to her. He didn't seem to be paying attention to her phone call. "Is this about Jackson? Do you not want to come home because Jackson lives here now?"

Surprisingly enough to her, that caught his attention but only enough for him to look at her and roll his eyes. They had bonded, he wasn't worried about it. Besides, April appeared to get an earful from Summer after that last accusation.

"Okay, I know. I know you like Jackson sweetie, I was just checking," she told Summer, but Jackson snatched the phone from her.

"Hey Summer. I'm really sorry about your mom. You know how she gets. I'll talk to her," he told her calmly, laughing vaguely at something the younger version of April said. "She's fine. You know her voice just gets like that when she's worried."

April waited for him to wrap things up, getting more irritated by the second. He laughed at something she said. "I'll tell him you said that. He's doing great. Getting ready to start at Boston College. I don't think he has any idea what he wants to do either. At least that's the impression I'm getting."

Eventually their conversation ended and he got up to find April who had all but stomped away. She was hiding upstairs in their bedroom, facing their bed and folding laundry.

Jackson snuck up behind her and wrapped her arms around her, nestling his large hands on her protruding baby belly. April jumped and he began kissing the side of her neck, peppering kisses across her jaw and neck.

"What Jackson?" She snapped, stiffening in his arms. He chuckled at her mood. Recently the changes in her mood and her hormones were giving him whiplash but he couldn't really complain.

He chose his words carefully. "You're being overbearing. She's going to do what she wants to do. Don't push her away. She's a good kid."

April turned around to eye him carefully. "I just want what's best for her. College is what's best for her. Don't you think?"

Jackson nodded but added, "I agree sweetheart but if she doesn't want to be there yet then it will do no her no good to go."

She shrugged and understood what he was saying. "Can't she try and figure it all out up here with us?" She couldn't hold back the tears that were on the verge of falling and Jackson had to hold back his laughter.

"You don't like her down there with those two anymore than I do, but it is what it is," He softly worked to kiss away her tears and tried to calm her. "All we can do is let her live her life, be there for her when she needs us and get ready for this new baby," Jackson grinned looking down at April's belly. She was seven months pregnant and she'd looked like she was about to pop for the past three months.

April grinned and rested her hands on his on top of her swollen belly. She was thrilled to have baby number two. It couldn't come a day too soon for her either...it wasn't necessarily easy for her this time around.

He pulled her close and whispered into her ear, "I'll give you dinner, if you give me dessert." His tone was husky and seductive, the kind she could never say no to. Not that she would want to. Lately she had been in the mood all day, every day. She tried not to think about it but couldn't get her mind off the though of riding him until she screamed.

She had it in her mind to skip dinner completely and go straight to dessert but her pager beat her to the idea. She pulled it off her nightstand. "911."

"April, we've talked about this. You're too far to be taking heavy trauma calls. Call someone else, okay?" He begged, even forgetting about their possible love making. Her being on her feet in surgery for ten hours or running around the ER countlessly wasn't going to cause her and his baby anything but problems. She was too far along.

To his surprise, she nodded. "I've already told Hunt the same thing, but since I've been paged I'm guessing it's important." She shrugged and attempted to bend down to tie her shoes. It wasn't working.

Jackson understood what she was saying, he just wished he could go in her place. Ironically enough, his pager went off moments after hers. "911."

He helped her tie her shoes and found a shirt to pull on before they made their dash for the hospital.

Seven hours later April waddled out of surgery, only to find a pissed off Jackson waiting for her in the hallway.

"Really?" he asked her, shaking his head and pointing to the chair that was sitting against the wall by the door.

She shrugged, gave up and sat down, catching the breath she didn't know she lost in the process. Jackson was shaking his head in irritation, only pissing her off more. She was pregnant, not stupid. She could still operate.

They saw Hunt on the other side of the hallway and Jackson took off in his direction. "Jackson, don't! That's my boss!" She hollered at him but he wasn't hearing anything she was saying.

"Dr. Avery, how can I help you?" Dr. Hunt asked while he finished signing a few papers for his secretary who was following him on his rounds.

"Why the hell is my wife still being paged? Didn't we talk about this? Routine procedures only until after she has the baby." Avery asked accusingly. His tone was harsh and loud.

"Whoa, whoa. I had nothing to do with Dr. Kepner—" he tried telling him but Jackson interrupted. "Avery. Dr. Avery."

"Okay, I had nothing to do with Dr. Avery being called in for surgery. Don't direct your anger at me." He told his Head of Plastics and walked down the hall, abruptly ending their conversation.

Even though he still didn't know who paged her, he was positive Hunt would make sure she wasn't paged 911 for surgery again anytime soon.

"What's his problem?" Alex asked her, motioning to his friend stomping down the hallway.

"He's mad that I'm still allowed to work," she sighed. Alex chuckled.

"Well you do look about twelve months pregnant. Plus, Avery's been overprotective of you since you started here. What do you expect?" He reasoned. April had to agree with him. He was right and Jackson was probably right but she loved surgery. If she stopped operating, she knew it would be at least four months until she would be back. Likely more now since Jackson and her had all but officially decided she would stay home with the baby for the first year.

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**Reviewwww!**


	11. Just One More Surgery

**I'm baaack! R&R :)**

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One month later

It was Friday night and the pit was complete and utter chaos. There were multiple gunshot wounds, a few car accident victims, a child who swallowed his weight in marbles and a rape victim all lining the beds. An extremely pregnant April Kepner waddled around as quickly as she could between the makeshift rooms to examine pending surgical cases and patients. Her scrub top was so tight that the bottom of her belly hung out and she was holding her lower back to relieve some of the stress from the baby.

"Dr. Kepner, are you sure you should be working the pit?" Her intern Dr. Ross asked her as he pulled a chair up to her and motioned for her to sit down. She sent him a quick scowl that he didn't know she was capable of.

"This is the only time I can get off my butt, Dr. Avery is in surgery for the four maybe five hours. I know what I'm capable of Dr. Ross, but thanks. I will let you know if I need help." April snapped at him and swiftly pulled back a curtain to introduce herself to her next patient.

The patient was a tall man who appeared to be in his late twenties, complaining of pain in his lower abdomen. He was clearly nauseated and nurse Olivia reported his temperature to be nearly 102. April slightly pressed on his appendix to double check but she was sure it was appendicitis.

"What the hell doc?" The man snapped, glaring at her.

"You have appendicitis. I'm going to have to take you into emergency surgery and remove them." April informed him and immediately took off to find an intern to prep him and book an OR.

"Dr. Kepner, I'm under strict orders from Dr. Avery not to let you anywhere near an OR. Is anyone else who could do it?" He asked, stepping in front of her as if he could hold her back. She chuckled humorlessly, like he thought he could hold a nearly full term pregnant woman back. Good luck. She rolled her eyes and walked past him, ignoring his comment all together.

"Dr. Kepner, I will inform Dr. Avery about this if it comes to that." Shane told her nervously. He didn't want to go to Dr. Avery any more than she wanted him to. Dr. Avery would be all over him just for letting her work as much as she had the past couple of hours.

April shrugged and continued prepping for surgery. She knew Jackson's was working on a burn victim from earlier and he would be at least a couple more hours. He wouldn't even have to know.

She made it in to the OR and even almost finished scrubbing in before Dr. Hunt came in. "No way, I don't think so. You and I both know your husband has put the entire hospital under strict orders to keep you off your feet and out of surgery until after you have the baby." He told her, shaking his head.

"You and I both know this is only going to take two hours at the very longest. His appendix isn't ruptured yet. Jackson's procedure is going to take twice that. He'll never know. Besides, we're so busy right now I don't think you have another surgeon to remove his appendix unless you wanted to use an intern. And we both know how that turns out." She told him, a tad cockier than what he was used to seeing from her. Who knew she had that in her? She wanted this, mostly because she knew it would be her last surgery. It was already pressing her luck to get Jackson to let her work at all on a Friday night.

Hunt eyed her carefully, likely judging whether or not they could get away with it. He knew she was capable but also knew Avery was worried for a reason. If it were Cristina he would feel the same way.

"Fine. But I want you in and out of there Kepner. Then you're done. You start your maternity leave after tonight. End of discussion. Have Dr. Ross scrub in so he can keep an eye on you." He told her and she scuffed at his using of 'keep an eye on you'.

"I think you mean babysit me, Sir." She argued under her breath.

The appendectomy was going better than expected. She had already removed the appendix and all she had to do was repair a couple of bleeding nerves and tie him up before closing. "Dr. Ross, you see these bleeders? Make sure you don't miss them during an appendectomy, it's very important. They never stress that enough," She lectured him, trying to get in as much teaching as she could before she was on leave. He nodded and so she carefully handed him her instrument.

"You try," she told him, grinning. He looked at her, judging whether she was serious or not. Warily, he grabbed the tool and began fixing the bleeders. Here and there April offered him a good job, always opting for positive encouragement rather than negative feedback. She knew he was one to feed off of the compliments too so it worked well.

After a couple minutes of silence she felt something strange. "Oh no, oh no. No no no," April groaned, accidentally alerting Dr. Ross who was already on edge. "What? What did I do?" He asked, stopping immediately and looking up at her. She was still silent and focused her attention on her water that just broke and was covering the OR floor.

She looked up at him and back down to the wet floor and then back to him again. He didn't say anything and he still looked confused. April was in too much shock to talk. "Her water broke. And somehow you're the doctor," Bokey mumbled under her breath, pointing to the mess on the floor.

Dr. Ross looked at Bokey and then under the table and saw it. "Oh my God. What do we do?" He asked her and she thought carefully about her options. She knew she wasn't even dilated yet and they likely had time. She'd been through this before. "We are not going to do anything. You are going to finish the few bleeders that you have left and close him up," she told him calmly. He looked so uneasy that it was humorous to her and she accidentally let a laugh slip. She watched him shake his head and finish what he was doing. She felt fine and waited as a scrub nurse came and dried the water beneath her feet.

They were done within twenty minutes and her contractions were barely started. She asked a nurse for a wheel chair and had her wheel her up to maternity. Once she was there she sent an OB resident to inform her husband that she was in labor.

Her OB set her up in a private room and programmed a monitor to monitor both her status and the baby's status. "Have you heard from my husband?" April asked her worriedly. She had texted him a couple of times. She knew he was in surgery and likely had a couple more hours to go still since it had only been a little over an hour since she went into surgery herself.

"No I haven't, Dr. Kepner. I will let you know if I hear anything," She smiled politely and walked back into the hallway. Dr. Ross came in a few minutes later.

"He's still in the OR. He knows though and is going to get up here as soon as possible." He told her, setting a cup of ice chips in front of her.

"As soon as possible? He can't have someone else finish? What about Sloan? Where's Sloan?" April asked her intern frantically.

"Dr. Sloan is in a different OR and he is expected to take even longer than Jackson. He can't do anything but try to finish as soon as possible."

Ross could tell she was on the verge of a breakdown. He suggested she call her daughter and when she did she snuck out of her room. The only thing she could think to do was call Dr. Karev.

It wasn't more than twenty minutes and Alex was in her room.

"About to pop, huh Kepner?" He asked playfully, pointing at her belly. She was covered in sweat and two centers dilated. She glared at him and he let out a playful shiver at her cold glare.

"Do you need anything?" Alex asked her seriously, trying to be a friend to both her and Jackson. It was the least he could do since Avery was his best friend and all. She shook her head and informed him that she called Isaac and Summer to let them know that she was in labor. Both of them had asked her where Jackson was since she was calling them instead of him. Summer shrugged, assuming that would happen. Isaac was mad that his dad wasn't there yet that he practically hung up on her.

Another hour went by with still no Jackson, two more centimeters of dilation and a bored Karev. He had taken to telling April stories of his days in high school and collegiate wrestling to calm her down. Normally those stories bored her to tears but it was nice to take her mind off of everything while he reminisced. She was calm for the most part, only slightly freaking out because Jackson was still in surgery. Their baby's heart rate was strong and it was only a matter of time until she would be a mother for the second time.

Her patience was wearing thin when she hit seven centimeters dilated and still no surgery. Alex was pacing back and forth, snapping at interns revolving in and out of her room updating him on Avery's status in the OR. April was refusing pain medicine, wanting a natural childbirth. He was on his last nerve with her and her bitchy attitude, even though he knew it was stupid for him to be annoyed. Maybe he was just more annoyed that Avery wasn't there yet.

A resident told April she was eight centimeters dilated just as Jackson walked in the room.

"Baby I am so sorry. I'm here. I love you," he gushed towards her, leaning down and peppering soft kisses all over her face. A small smile escaped her, taking a second to be thankful he made it and forget about the pain of the contractions that Alex wasn't really helping her with.

"We missed you," she laughed as he pulled her forward, enough so that he could sit behind her and hold her like they practiced in their Lamaze class. There was something uniquely intimate about the position they were sitting in that Alex felt he should leave for. His job was done.

Jackson wrapped his arms around her and settled his hands on top of her belly.. He rubbed it soothingly, feeling their baby bumping and kicking, reading to come out.

April rested her hands over his and squeezed them tightly, trying to get through another set of contractions. From what she could tell they were only a couple of minutes apart.

"Two minutes apart. Looks like I made it just in time," he whispered in her ear. He placed another kiss on her jaw and one on the crook of her neck. She didn't have much to say, she was mostly focused on her breathing and having Jackson with her made everything easier. "And did I hear right that you were doing an appendectomy when your water broke?" He smirked and dropped it. She pretended not to hear him at all.

"You can do this." Jackson told her calmly. She nodded eagerly. Only forty five minutes later she was a full ten centimeters dilated.

Her OB came in, "looks like you're ready to push," she sang.

April turned slightly to look at Jackson. "Are you sure we're ready for this?"

He chuckled and pulled her closer to him. "I think we've reached a point of no return."

She was instructed to push and with that came the loudest, shrillest screech Jackson had ever heard from her. Her normal high pitched squeals were nothing compared to this. Alex would be having a fit.

Jackson used the face towel a nurse had given him and wiped his wife's forehead dry of sweat. She screamed again and belted out another long and hard push, putting in everything she had.

"I can't! I can't push anymore. She's stuck!" April cried, she was emotionally and physically exhausted. Thinking back to having Summer, she remembered it being a hundred times easier than this.

"I can see her head. You're almost there. I just need one more big push from you, can you do that April?" the woman asked. April cried.

"Sweetheart, we're so close. One more hard push and we can see our little girl," Jackson tried reasoning with her. She took his words to heart and decided to try.

"Are you ready?" He ask her quietly, holding her as close as he possibly could. His red headed wife nodded quietly while her doctor counted to three.

April exerted more energy than she ever had in her life into that last push. She felt her baby come all the way out and her doctor pull her out from between her legs. Within three seconds they heard her belt out a shrill scream that strangely mimicked April's.

They cleaned her up quickly and wrapped her in a brand new soft pink baby blanket. A nurse handed her carefully to April who couldn't believe her eyes. Their new daughter was gorgeous. She was perfect.

The nurse took their camera off of the table next to their bed and snapped a quick picture of the three of them, still in bed. The picture showed April and Jackson mesmerized by their tiny 6.8 pound, 20 inch long baby girl.

"Do you have a name yet?" she asked them after a while, giving them time to admire their creation.

Jackson looked at April, completely smitten with his daughter. They had bickered back and forth about her name and up until this point he cared to have a say. After seeing what April just did to bring her in to the world he wanted her to name their daughter exactly what she wanted.

"Brynn." She told the nurse, not taking her eyes off her beautiful baby girl.

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**Probably two more chapters left. What do you think will happen?**


	12. And It All Comes To This

**Last chapter! I would really like to thank everyone who has read this story. Especially those of you who have reviewed to let me know what you think. Your comments are helping me improve my writing skills, at least I hope so! I hope this wraps everything up the way it should. I'm considering adding a one-shot follow up that happens a number of years from now, just showing where they've all ended up. Should I?**

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"When did our baby girl become three months old?" April asked Jackson one day. They had just taken her for her three month checkup which included lots of shots and a screaming Brynn. Jackson couldn't believe it either. It seemed like just yesterday he was racing to get there in time and help April through her delivery. Now they had a beautiful, healthy little girl. Not to mention she was the perfect baby. They had talked about how both Summer and Isaac had been colicky, but Brynn never made a sound. Besides when she was forced to get shots of course.

He shook his head in disbelief at her question, unsure himself how time was flying so quickly. Their wedding's tomorrow and they'll finally be married. He just wanted April to be his forever and it seemed like their wedding was a long time coming. Summer and Isaac were both on their way from different sides of the country and Catherine was coming too.

April reminded Jackson to pick everyone up from the airport. "I wrote you a list with all the arrival times. You should be able to pick up Summer and Mike at 10:30 and have lunch while you wait for Alice. Libby and my parents aren't coming so you don't have to worry about that. You'll have to make a second run to pick up Isaac and your mother at 3:15." She had carefully articulated a list so he wouldn't miss anyone.

He nodded and stole Brynn from April and held her up to blow raspberries across her stomach. He adored her giggle when he did that. April finished everything she was cooking, getting ready for tomorrow. She was doing it all for the most part, besides a small cake they ordered from a bakery in downtown Seattle. There really weren't going to be too many people attending, so she didn't have much to worry about. Jackson tried to coerce her into getting it catered but she couldn't make herself do that knowing that there were only going to be about twenty people or so there.

"You're baking homemade macaroni and cheese?" he asked anxiously, watching her pull it out of the oven. If he had known she was going to make that he would have married her months ago. She giggled. "Yes, homemade macaroni and cheese. It's easy and good."

He moaned, smelling it as it came out of the oven. "Can I have some now?" He asked her while he pulled a spoon out of the drawer and tried to sneak a taste.

She smacked his hand away and stared at him. "Jackson Avery!"

He chuckled and leaned down to kiss her before taking Brynn upstairs to change her for April before he left to pick up Summer. Dressing his daughter wasn't his expertise but April made it easy. She hung up her clothes by outfit so he knew what matched and what bows to pair with what outfits, same with shoes. They came back downstairs and she was wearing a casual white dress with pink stripes across it and a frilly pink bow.

By this time April had put together another casserole and a was working on a few more appetizers to set out. "Look at you baby. You're so pretty," she told her youngest daughter, stealing her back from Jackson. He kissed her goodbye and assured her he'd be back soon with Summer and Alice.

When Summer's plane arrived her saw her strolling through her gate with a guy he hadn't met before, he assumed it was Mike. "Summer!" He greeted her, leaning down to hug her. They had bonded a lot since that first night at the basketball game. He loved her like his own daughter. She smiled, thrilled to be home for a couple days and introduced her step dad to her boyfriend. "This is Mike," she introduced, "and this is my step dad Jackson."

They shook hands and Mike offered some pleasantry about it being nice to finally meet him. Jackson's initial judgment of Mike made him feel like something was off about the guy but he didn't want to start anything so he dropped it. The guy just rubbed him the wrong way. Something about his introduction seemed fake, forced even.

"Your mother has me on a tight schedule today. It says here we are having an airport lunch and waiting for your aunt Alice before going home," he teased and pointed down the hallway that was lined with a Cinnabon, McDonalds and TGIFridays. "You choose." He joked, even though there was really one option. TGIFridays.

She giggled the same way April does, which entertained Jackson. They got a booth and Summer tried to make small talk between Jackson and Mike. Mike was twenty one and ordered a beer, something that didn't thrill Jackson. He didn't know the guy was so much older than Summer, who had barely turned eighteen. Plus, he thought it was disrespectful for him to drink in the situation, just meeting her family and all. While still at the airport.

Jackson looked across the table at him, unknowingly sending him a glare.

"…just to take the edge off. I get too wound up when I travel," he reasoned, taking another sip of his beer. Jackson shrugged and texted April while the two kids talked about someone they sat next to on the plane.

He texted out "I don't like this guy." And just got "?" back. By the time she had responded though they were done with lunch and the waitress brought his debit card back so they left to wait at Alice's gate. She walked through her gate with someone too. He and Alice had only met once before, she was off studying at Rice Medical. Summer jumped up and down waiting for Alice and hugged her and introduced her and Mike before Jackson even got the chance to say hello. When he did he met her boyfriend, someone who he felt a lot easier about than Mike. At least her boyfriend Charles seemed a lot friendlier than Mike. He didn't seem like he had anything to hide.

They got back to the house and found April still in the kitchen. Brynn was taking a nap in her nursery so just the adults got to talk. "I want to wake her up, she is so perfect," Summer gushed after coming down from the nursery and checking on her little sister. April shook her head nervously. "Summer! You NEVER wake a sleeping baby."

Summer sighed. She was kidding.

Mike excused himself and Jackson noticed him sitting out on the front porch by himself. He motioned out that way, "What's his deal Summer?"

She shrugged, not really saying much. "Probably just tired. When's Isaac's plane come in?"

"3:15. He and my mom are coming." He told her, picking up an apple off the counter to bite into. Summer nodded and took a deep breath. She missed Isaac but obviously she had to get over it. It wasn't a good idea to have feelings for your step brother. She moved hundreds of miles away to get over him for goodness sake. Jackson noticed Summer peer outside the front door and roll her eyes at Mike who was outside smoking. He still didn't know or like what was going on.

April noticed the tension and put Summer to work. She was mostly done but there was a couple things she needed Summer's help with. "So how are your father and Stacy doing?" she asked her once Jackson left to go back to the airport.

Summer groaned. Her dad and step mother were fighting all the time, but her dad made her promise to keep it to herself. He didn't want April rubbing anything in his face any time soon. "They're fine. Working a lot," she tried covering for him.

Her mom just nodded. Sounded like Matthew. "And what's the deal with Mike?"

Summer looked up, still looking uneasy. "What do you mean?"

"I mean why did you bring him? You two don't seem very…close." April laughed. She'd never seen Summer look so bored in a relationship. Summer didn't have much to say about that either, very unlike her. The room was quiet until Summer spoke up.

"I didn't want to come to this wedding alone. I know Mike's rude, I'm going to break up with him when we get home. It's just…" she tried telling her mom. April pulled a chair out for each of them at the table they were standing in front of. They sat down and started picking at the cookie dough Summer was mixing up.

April waited. "Just what?"

"Just that I didn't want Isaac to show up with a date and me be all alone." She told her, ashamed. She knew she shouldn't still be worrying about Isaac, especially now that they were about to be related. April was probably going to tell her as much.

"Sweetie, I'm sorry about how everything happened with you and Isaac and Jackson and I. But it you need to move on," she told her daughter patiently. She gave her a small smile, telling her that she understood how she felt. "Just not with Mike."

Both mother and daughter got a chuckle out of that and Summer nodded her head. She needed to move on. Isaac probably had.

They were able to finish all of the food and the dress a few picnic tables out in the backyard for tomorrow. Their new house sat out in the country and April and Jackson opted to get married in the field in the backyard. There were butterflies everywhere at this time of year which was perfect, she'd always dreamed of a field with butterflies. Her first marriage was a courthouse thing that was nothing short of a business transaction. Jackson surprised her by ordering special mints that were marked with "Mint to Be" on them. She had no idea how he remembered, but he did. She mentioned the idea to him months ago and he remembered. He never stopped surprising her.

Today was the day. There were very few people coming, but that's the way they wanted it. Isaac was the best man and Summer the maid of honor. Catherine was there and so was April's sister Alice. A few of their friends from work attending too.

April was wearing a long, white dress. It was almost a sundress. Casual, somewhat traditional and completely gorgeous. It was strapless and perfect for her because it showcased her long neck and shoulders. Summer did her hair, pinning the red locked up in an elegantly curled bun. She wore light make up and white flip flops.

Jackson was wearing a tan suit with a light blue shirt underneath. He couldn't look more handsome if he tried. He was newly shaven and the blue from his shirt brought out the crisp blue green of his eyes. Catherine held Brynn while they sat by her date, a fellow coworker at the hospital, Richard Webber.

April walked down the makeshift aisle to the song 'Marry Me' by Train. It was simple but perfect for them. It was seventy degrees and there was a slight breeze, making it completely beautiful outside.

April walked alone up the aisle, something she decided she was okay with. She stood next to Jackson and he held her hand while they waited for the minister to start talking. He whispered "stunning" into her ear, eliciting a slight blush from his soon to be wife. They exchanged their personal vows to each other and promised to love each other forever.

The days of April and Summer and the days of Jackson and Isaac were gone. They were now the Avery's. Jackson, April, Isaac, Summer and Brynn Avery.


End file.
